Life is for the Living
by princessmikey14
Summary: McKenna was pretty normal before everything happened. She didn't have very many friends on account of her moving all of the time, but she made do. She had always enjoyed reading comic books, which is how she makes her very first friend after the apocalypse starts. Carl Grimes. Carl/OC. Eventual minor Daryl/OC.
1. Chapter 1

"You're not going to story time?" Carl asked jokingly with a small smile McKenna just rolled her eyes before going back to the comic book in her lap. "You almost done with my comic book?"

"That depends, got any new ones?" she closed the book, keeping the page marked with her thumb, she only had two pages left but this was the last one of his that she hadn't finished reading yet and she would read it again if he didn't have anything new. She grew so bored at the prison sometimes. She used to move from place to place all the time-before the apocalypse that was. She was an army brat and her dad had been stationed pretty much everywhere in her fourteen and a half years of life. He had just happened to be stationed at Fort Benning when everything went crazy.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"You'll never get this back if you don't answer me."

"The thing is," he frowned. "I haven't read them yet."

"You know I'm a faster reader than you anyway."

"Fine, c'mon," he sighed. She grinned and stood from the seat in her cell. She tucked her hair behind her ear and went back to reading as they walked. Carl rolled her eyes, she always did that and then he had to make sure that she didn't run into any walls. A few weeks ago, when Michonne had brought back comics for the first time in a while, she was walking to his cell and reading when she did run into one of the metal doors. She fell flat on her bottom and ended up with a large goose egg on her head the next day.

"Done," she declared when they were nearly there. She handed the book back to him and grinned. "Did you get anything any good?"

"I didn't even look at them yet," he admitted.

"You mean you came all the way to my cell just to pester me before you looked at the comics?" Carl had grown accustomed to way of joking, she was the only one of the "kids" that was even remotely sarcastic and she always made the conversation interesting. And, she was the only one that he could talk about comic books with whenever he wanted, Michonne read them but she was never around. Once upon a time, he may have thought that it was a little weird that a girl was reading comics, but now he was just glad to have a friend with similar interests. Even Patrick was off at story time, which McKenna and Carl tended to make jokes about how silly it was.

"Did you like that one?" Carl held up the book that he had in his hand.

"It was pretty good, I didn't really like the ending though...It may be better if I read the other twelve issues first though," she shrugged.

"Probably," he laughed.

"It's better than anything in that library, I'm sure," she scoffed. "I half wonder how bad it is in there, y'know?"

"Wanna crash story time?" he smirked with a playful glint in his blue eyes.

"Yeah, let's go!"

The two ran for the library, dropping Carl's comic book off in his cell before continuing on their way. Carl held a finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet. She followed his lead into the library. She let the door click shut silently and they crept around the shelves. Carol read part of some book as they made their way to a taller shelf so that they could peak through the books and look at the group of children.

"Should I keep watch?" Luke, a little curly-haired boy asked.

"Yes, that would be good," Carol told him gently.

"Keep watch for what?" McKenna asked her counterpart. Carl shrugged his shoulders and continued to watch as Carol put a case on the floor.

"Today we're going to learn about knives," she announced.

McKenna managed to lose her balance and nearly fell backwards. Carl grabbed her wrist out of reflex and kept her on her feet. He rolled his eyes at her for the umpteenth million time. He realized her clumsiness by now but he sometimes wondered how she had lasted this long. She was always falling over her own feet or losing her balance for no reason.

The sound of McKenna toppling over a few books on the lower shelf was enough to grab Carol's attention. She was quickly to her feet and over to where the two children were standing.

"You're teaching them how to use weapons?" Carl asked, his voice picking up an angry tone.

"Carl," Carol started. "It's important...they need to know. Please don't tell your dad."

"I'm not going to lie to my dad," he gave her a look before heading towards the door, he couldn't believe her!

"You're not lying. This is important."

Carl turned to face Carol once more. "Shouldn't their parents at least get a say?" his hand touched the door and McKenna found herself following him. The last thing she wanted was to end up stuck at story time alone. It was one thing when she and Carl were crashing it together.

"Maybe if we knew what it was all along we wouldn't have thought it was so dumb, huh?" she joked.

"What happened to the rules?" Carl was annoyed over everything with Carol and McKenna knew to just let him get it off his chest. He always ended up telling her what was bothering him. He couldn't talk to his dad, it was like he was stuck in farm mode and he didn't want to hear anything concerning weapons or walkers. "I have to tell my dad..."

"Will he even listen?" she was well aware of farmer Rick.

"He'll have to...But he's busy now. Comic books?" he suggested. A smile crept back onto her features and they ran to his cell.

"I win!" she exclaimed tagging the bars first. She ran in and flopped onto his bed. She grabbed the stack of comics on the table beside it and shuffled through them. "Oo Spiderman." She held the stack out to him as he sat on the edge of the bed. "Go sit on the chair," she sighed as he leaned back onto her legs, resting his back against the walls.

"Nah, you stole my bed," he said. She grabbed the pillow from behind her head and smacked him in the head with it. "Hey!" he protested. She stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"You're heavy, go on."

"You move, it's my bed."

"I got to it first."

Carl stared at her for a long moment. Her green eyes were always curious, they were always analyzing everything and moving, except in this moment, she was staring back at him.

"Fine, you win," he gave in and took a seat in the chair next to her. She blew a raspberry at him and began reading her Spiderman comic.

"Hey," McKenna tapped the table next to Carl to get his attention. He looked up from the book quickly and stared at her. "I'm hungry."

"Dinner should be about done..." he told her. "We can come back up here later."

"Okay, I've got dibs on the bed when we come back though," she smirked.

"Not if I beat you to it."

"We'll see about that."

They walked towards the cafeteria section of cell block C, McKenna lived in D block with her father and the woman she had adopted as her aunt, even though she had her own cell.

"What do you think we're having? Do you think that it would be too much to want some chocolate pudding right now?"

"That'd be nice, but I bet it's beans or something."

"Ew," McKenna made a disgusted face before realizing something. "I should probably go eat with my family...I haven't seen them all day. You know how my dad gets."

"Oh yeah," he agreed. He knew that he would end up sitting by himself because all of the other kids were from D and Beth sat with her boyfriend now and he didn't really want to see any more of his dad, he already had to work with him in the fields all day.

"Come eat with us, I'm sure they won't mind," she suggested. "It'll be fun."

"Okay," he agreed. She grinned and they both went off to D block.

"Hi dad," McKenna greeted, taking a seat at their table.

"Hey," he smiled at her. His green eyes matched hers and she had the same dark hair as him. "Hey Carl." William was glad that McKenna had made a friend, whether it was the apocalypse or not. She had never really had a friend throughout all of their moving. She simply didn't bother talking to anybody her own age because she wouldn't know them very long.

"Hi," Carl replied.

"I'll go make your plates," William rose from the table and walked into the kitchen area.

"Hey there munchkin," Marlene, a woman that William and McKenna had run across right before they found the prison, sat across from Carl and McKenna. "And munchkin two..."

"Real original," McKenna retorted. "You couldn't have come up with something a little bit more creative."

"Fine, Old McDonald. That better?"  
"No, you already failed."

"You're such a smart ass," Marlene rolled her eyes. She was about thirty-five and had the darkest black hair McKenna had ever seen, it was pin straight and cut to where her neck met her head in the back. On her right side, it came past her chin and was a little bit longer. On her left side, however, it was chin length. She had striking, yet delicate features that nobody would expect somebody so brave and so willing to laugh in the face of danger to have. Her eyes were a dark color that for the longest time, McKenna thought were dark brown, but she later realized that they were hazel, and a beautiful shade of it at that. The inner ring was a darker brown, then the main portion of the iris was a dark green color with gold flecks, and the outer ring was a golden brown. She had olive colored skin and a petite, yet muscular figure. She was strong enough to carry the heaviest of guns without a problem, yet slim enough to be gorgeous. She typically wore dark colored, tight pants that she tucked into her black leather combat boots, with a looser v-neck shirt that could vary in color.

"Why thank you," McKenna grinned. Marlene rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Carl.

"And you hang out with her all day, short stuff?" Marlene asked with a grin.

Carl scoffed. "Yeah, and she steals my comic books," he playfully rolled his eyes. He liked Marlene, she reminded him of Daryl in a way. They were both sarcastic and brave. But, Marlene was a lot more open and she was better with people. Daryl had gotten better since they first met, but he still wasn't so great around strangers. They were both kind of laid back-unless you made them mad and they both were well equipped for this world.

Marlene gasped in mock horror. "Oo, McKenna's a bad kid!"

"How old are you? Like five?" McKenna rolled her eyes.

"But I read at a six year old level," she grinned. "Food!" she exclaimed as William came back. "Is that for me?"

"I don't recall fathering a giant preschooler," he sat down with his own food. "So you can go get your own."

The relationship between Marlene and William wasn't a romantic one by any means, it was more of a brother/sister bond. She annoyed him like the younger sister that he never had and that was the way that they liked it.

"Ha! I won this time!" Carl exclaimed, taking the bed.

"I'm not sitting in the uncomfortable ass chair," McKenna crossed her arms stubbornly. She grabbed her comic book and flopped down in the bed next to him. "Scoot over some."

"You're a pain in my butt," he then realized that he couldn't reach his comic book unless he reached over her. "Hand me mine?"

McKenna sighed like it was such an inconvenience and reached over to get the comic.

"What's ti about?"

"Zombies," he said. She looked over at him with a 'really?' type look. "Funny, huh?"

"Not really," she admitted. "I used to think that zombies were cool, until we landed in a world full of them." The silently read for a while, side by side in the small bed.

"Quit nudging me, punk," McKenna elbowed Carl back after the second time that he did it to her.

"It wasn't on purpose," he had finished his book a while ago, but he didn't feel like starting anything one. They were already reading by flashlight and he didn't want to have her move again.

"Liar." She closed her book deciding to be done for the day and put it on his table. "How's your bed more comfortable than mine?"

"I don't know."

She rolled over onto her side and readjusted the pillow. She didn't want to go back to her own cell, it was pretty far away. And, she figured that friends had sleepovers, that was what she had heard anyway. She didn't see why the apocalypse stop her from having her first sleepover.

"Good night," she murmured. Carl knitted his brow in confusion but then he realized that she planned on sleeping there. Though this wasn't typical, not that he knew of anyway. He was so disconnected from the old world he didn't even know what a sleepover was like so he picked up the blanket from the foot of the bed and threw it over them since they were lying on top of the other blanket he didn't see a point in freezing to death.

"Carl," he voice was quiet and her eyes stayed shut as she said it.

"Yeah?" he replied, watching her carefully.

"Never mind...Good night."

"Good night."

Rick walked up to the upper level to check tell Carl to go to bed, the night before he had stayed up late to read comics and he didn't want the same thing to happen tonight. They had to get an early start on farming tomorrow.

To Rick's surprise, when he walked into Carl's cell, he wasn't the only one in the bed. Rick could see long, medium brown hair from under the blanket. He almost said something, but he decided that having a sleepover was something normal, it was something a kid in the apocalypse wouldn't do, so he left them. He decided that it would be best to let William know where McKenna was.

**AN: Hi guys, this is my first Carl/OC story, I decided that there weren't a lot of them and I'm starting to like his character a lot more so I decided to make this. I would like to credit DarkAngelsQueen for helping me a lot with this chapter, so thank you! Reviews are welcomed just don't be overly mean, constructive criticism is fine, just don't flame (I think that's the term for it). **

**~Michelle~**


	2. Chapter 2

"Carl," Rick called into his son's cell. "Time to get up."

McKenna opened her eyes first. She looked towards the cell door and noticed Rick holding Carl's baby sister, Judith. She nudged Carl, making him wake up too.

"Get up, lazy butt," she told him, poking his cheek. His blue eyes opened quickly and he just stared at her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked.

"I slept here, remember? Your dad's here," she got out of the bed, her lighter brown hair all over the place. She still had her boots on so she took the hair tie that was around her wrist and pulled her hair up.

"I let your dad know that you were here," Rick nodded to McKenna.

"Thanks. You guys are doing farm chores, right?"

"It's what we do everyday," Carl stood from the bed and smoothed out his hair a little.

"Do you think that I could help out a little? I wanna do my part and since Dad doesn't want me near the walkers..."

"You wanna spend your time with worms and pig crap?" Carl raised an eyebrow, McKenna just shrugged. "I thought girls didn't like those things."

"Well you thought wrong," she poked his upper arm and smirked. "But I guess girls don't like comic books either, right?"

"I guess you're just a weirdo."

"I guess so. So can I help?"  
"Can she, Dad?" Carl looked to Rick who let a small smile onto his features before nodding.

"Awesome." She followed them outside, Rick had dropped Judith off first and she noticed her shoe was tied. "Carl, stand still a minute."

"Why?" he stopped and turned to face her. She put her foot up on his leg and tied her shoe. He just gave her an annoyed look. "Really? Couldn't you like bend down and do that?"

"Nah, this way's easier," she grinned.

"For you maybe."

Michonne happened to be leading her horse out as they were walking down.

"You two want me to look for anything in particular while I'm out?" she asked the two fourteen year-olds. "Other than comic books and stale M&M's?"

"You're the one that likes stale M&M's," Carl told Michonne.

"I will definitely be looking for some of those then. McKenna, you want anything?"

"As many comic books as you can find," she smiled.

"Okay," with that she continued on her way to the fence.

"See you soon?" Carl called.

"Soon," she agreed.

McKenna didn't know Michonne other than through Carl but she held a lot of respect for the woman's bravery, she went out all by herself, McKenna couldn't imagine actually doing that.

They made their way down to the where the crops were and Rick began picking up leaves full of worms. He had gloves over his hands and McKenna smirked. She picked up one of the worms and held it in front of Carl. "Merry Christmas!"

"Ick, Happy New Year," he pushed her hand back towards her and she just laughed before adding the slimy, wiggly creature to the bucket that Rick had.

A scream rippled through the air around them and everyone looked up. Rick dropped the bucket so that he could find out what was going on and began sprinting towards the prison. "Up in the tower with Maggie, both of you!" he commanded the younger two.

"Walker's in D!" somebody yelled, McKenna could barely hear them, but it was enough.

"That's where my dad is, Carl...We've gotta-"

"My dad will take care of it. Get in the tower," he opened the door but before he could, there was commotion from outside the fence. Michonne had returned and there were far too many walkers for her to get back in. Carl quickly grabbed a rifle from beside the tower and gave it to McKenna. "Come on," he led her over to the fence and they began shooting the walkers around Michonne. McKenna helped him get the gate back open and she came riding in, a few walkers behind her. By this point, Maggie had climbed down from the tower and was helping them.

"McKenna," Carl called. "Duck."

Before her brain could process what he was even saying, she ducked down. He fired one shot and took out a walker that was behind her.

A particularly rotten looking walker was at Carl's feet and it was about to grab his ankle but McKenna pulled out her knife and stabbed it in the head.

"We're even," she smiled a little. They had both saved each other's lives in a matter of moments.

"I guess we are."

Upon noticing Rick come out of the prison, Carl and McKenna made their way over to him. He had a sad look on his face because he didn't want to tell McKenna what he knew that he had to. She would be devastated and he knew that girl didn't need any more of that in her life. Rick knew that like Carl, she had lost her mother and that she had been through a lot since the apocalypse had began. He wished that somebody else could deliver the news, but Rick realized that it just wouldn't sound right coming from anybody else.

"McKenna," he said gently. She turned to face him, her green eyes wide with fear. She knew that tone, she knew it was the tone that meant something horrible had happened. Her parents had used it when her grandma had died of cancer a few years ago, they had also used it when her beloved dog, Sprinkles, had been hit by a car.

"My dad?" her voice shook when she asked it and she couldn't stop the tears from welling up in her ducts. With the one confirming nod, she nearly fell to the ground. The tears began to spill out and she was a mess right away.

Rick would have offered a hug to her, but he had just been around a deadly virus and he didn't need to get her sick, so he looked at Carl, who was already frowning deeply and met his son's eyes before looking back at McKenna.

Catching on to Rick's suggestion, Carl pulled McKenna into a hug and let her cry on his shoulder. He had never been in this situation before, he had never had anybody, especially a girl, cry on his shoulder. He wasn't sure how to handle it, he liked William too and he did want to let his emotions get the better of him for only a moment, but if he did that, he realized that things may end up worse for McKenna. She needed him to be strong for her.

"He was all I had left," she sobbed. She had Marlene still, but that woman was a daredevil and it would probably only be a matter of time before McKenna lost her too. "I'm alone now." She used the heel of her hand to wipe her eyes roughly. She sniffled and stormed over to the space where they had been burying bodies. She picked up the shovel that was in the ground and began trying to break the dirt. She jumped on the shovel to get it in the ground. She cursed her small size, she was only two inches taller than five foot and she had no muscles so that made everything ten times harder.

"Should I go help her?" Carl asked Rick. He could tell that McKenna was angry and wanted her space, but he also knew that she would be there all day if he didn't go help.

"No," Rick replied. "Leave 'er 'lone a while."

"I don't need your help," McKenna told Daryl roughly when he wordlessly started digging in the same space she was. She had gotten only about a foot into the ground when he came out and it had been at least two hours.

"I didn't ask ya," he replied, digging some more. "Put this over yer mouth," he held out a bandana and she just glared at it. "People were exposed to somethin' deadly, put it on."

With a sigh, she tied the blue bandana over her mouth and nose while he put a black one on. Marlene and Glenn started bringing the bodies out a few moments later. Marlene didn't breath a word to McKenna because she knew that she would only make things worse. She did however, pick up another shovel and begin digging in the same hole.

"What the hell?" McKenna dropped her shovel. "None of you get it! He was my dad! I have to be the one. I don't need your help! I don't care if I'm here all week! Just let me do it myself!" She picked her shovel up again and glared at the other two.

Marlene and Daryl shared a look before silently agreeing. She moved on to begin digging other holes, leaving McKenna to her own. They were both surprised by her outburst, usually she was quiet and she didn't say much to anybody other than Marlene, Carl, and her father. Daryl had only heard her speak a few times and he had certainly never heard her yell.

"I grabbed some of McKenna's stuff," Rick put a small bag on Carl's bag, he was still trying to keep his distance from his son because he didn't want him to get sick too.

"She's moving to the office blocks," Carl stated in realization. It wasn't a question because he knew that she hadn't been exposed to the mystery infection.

"I figured you would want to take it over there...I don't think she'll be ready to come in until later..."

"Yeah..." Carl agreed, throwing his own stuff into a bag. He left the cell with both bags and headed for the office blocks. He walked through the field where all the bodies were being buried and he noticed Marlene and Daryl had finished three holes already and McKenna was barely two feet into her's. "We're moving to the office blocks," he told her, holding up her bag.

The only response he got was a nod, she then continued digging, stabbing the shovel into the ground to release some aggression. Carl frowned and moved on.

Carl chose a room for himself and McKenna to share, there wasn't a lot of room in the office blocks. And, he wasn't sure what she was going to be like when she did come in.

He knew what it was like to lose a parent but now McKenna had lost both and for Carl, that was nearly unimaginable. Her reaction wasn't uncalled for or really surprising. He just hoped that she would be alright. What was he thinking? Of course she would be alright, she was though, she was strong, and she could make it though this, she had survived losing her mother and she would survive losing her father. He wanted things to go back to normal as quickly as possible, he wanted to go back to reading comic books with her and laughing like the were yesterday.

McKenna's muscles ached. They were worn out and stiff. She wanted to collapse on the dirt beneath her feet. Daryl and Marlene were working on their last hole and she barely even made a dent it seemed like. As her knees began to wobble, she used the shovel to support herself, but she started slipping anyway.

"Munchkin?" Marlene bent down to McKenna's level and wanted so badly to help her, but she knew how stubborn the fourteen year old was.

"I can't do it...I just...I can't. He deserved a better daughter..." she sobbed. "I'm too weak..."

"Hey, that's not true and you know it," Marlene told her. "If you were truly too weak, you would've gone off some place and cried. But did you do that? No, you've done all of this, far more than I could have done at your age. Why don't you let Daryl take you to the office blocks, I'll finish this up."

McKenna wondered why she was supposed to go to the office blocks, but she was too weak to argue so she gave a nod and a moment later she felt herself be lifted from the ground.

Daryl realized that carrying McKenna was a good way to spread germs, but she had the bandana over her mouth and nose so he hoped that things would be okay. Just to be safe, he wouldn't go in the office blocks and he would tell Carl that she should probably be left alone for a while to make sure that she wasn't going to get anybody sick. He knocked on the door and a few moments later, Carl opened the door and looked at him slightly confused.

"She wore 'erself out."

"Is she okay?" Carl asked.

"Will be," Daryl replied. "Here, I can't go in 'ere. Help 'er lie down..." Daryl set McKenna's feet on the ground and tried to wake her, her green eyes opened sleepily and Carl looked at her worriedly.

"Put your arm over my shoulders," he told her. She listened without protest. "Daryl, can you take that bandana off of her?" The older man nodded. After doing so, he went back to help Marlene with the rest of the graves.

"I failed," McKenna whispered. Her head rested against Carl's shoulder as he more or less carried her where they were to sleep. He wished that he could pick her up, but she was nearly his height and though she was petite, he was sure that he couldn't lift her and he didn't want to drop her by attempting to lift her.

"You didn't fail," he told her.

"Yes I did...I'm weak...I'm pathetic."

They arrived in the room that Carl had selected and he helped her to lie down on the ground where he had set up the makeshift beds.

"That's bullshit and you know it. If you're going to have a pity party, do it by yourself. You should know that you're stronger than some of the adults by now and you can just stop feeling sorry for yourself. You're alive. Life is for the living." He didn't mean to be so harsh towards her, he just wanted her to realize the truth. She wasn't some pathetic wast of space, she was strong and he knew it, she just needed to know it too.


	3. Chapter 3

_McKenna was standing in the middle of an open field. There weren't any fences and the ground was solid under her feet. She held one gun, a Glock 17 if she wasn't mistaken. Walkers started surrounding her, She didn't recognize the first five that she shot, but then she saw her mother. Her blonde hair was covered in blood and dirt. Her skin had taken on a grayish color and the skin on her cheek was missing. McKenna held up the gun and did what she knew needed to be done. She pulled the trigger, she had had this dream many times and she knew that once she shot her mother, she would wake up._

_ That didn't happen this time. The next walker to come was really tall and wearing an army uniform. She could make out his dead green eyes in the moonlight. She covered her mouth with her hand and began to sob. He walker father stumbled closer and closer. She began backing up. Her hand shook as she tried to raise her gun. She couldn't do it. She couldn't accept that he was gone. She kept stepping back until her back pressed against a cool brick wall. He didn't stop coming towards her and she stopped caring. _

Carl could hear crying come from McKenna across the room. At first, it started out as low sobs, but they got louder and louder as the moments passed. He couldn't take it anymore so he got up and shook her shoulder gently. She rolled over and he noticed how puffy her eyes were and she was clearly crying.

"He was one of them..." she sobbed, hiccuping as she tried to stop her tears. The fact that she didn't have any blood family left was hitting her even harder than it had before. She felt alone, she felt like she would never be able to be close to anybody like she was with her father.

"A nightmare?"

"It didn't feel like it...Carl...it was so bad...He was...He was a walker and he almost got me because I couldn't do it. I couldn't shoot him. Carl wasn't sure what to say. He knew what that was like, he had nightmares of his mother turning and of Judith turning with her. He was always afraid of any of it coming true.

He did what he wished that somebody could do for him when he had his bad dreams. He wrapped his arms around her and let her bury her face in his shoulder. "It's okay to cry," he whispered. With his blessing, she let the water works go. She hated being such a weakling but she had to get it out. Her arms wrapped around the back of his neck into a hug and he more or less fell onto the makeshift bed that she was lying on.

"I'm sorry," she replied, gathering herself a moment later. She sniffed but didn't pull away from him. He was really comforting in that moment.

"Don't be."

"Stay over here with me...please. I-It'll happen again if you leave. I'll have more nightmares and you'll just have to get up...Please don't leave..."

"I won't."

"Thank you," she replied softly. She didn't let go of him as she went to fall back asleep because she wanted the connection to someone alive. She needed to remember that not everybody was a walker even as she slept.

When Carl woke up, he was alone in the room. The space next to him was empty and McKenna was long gone. He didn't even remember her getting up. He wasn't that deep of a sleeper, not anymore at least. He got up from McKenna's bed and found clothes for himself before he went to find her. He wanted to make sure that she was okay after last night. He remembered at the farm when Beth's mom died the blonde became suicidal, he didn't want McKenna to become the same way, he doubted that she would, but it was still possible.

He made it to an area where there was a table set up and multiple chairs. This wasn't here the day, somebody had been busy.

"Good morning," McKenna greeted, she was in a lot better spirits today. She had began setting food out. "Somebody dropped this off outside the door."

"How long have you been up?" was his only question.

"Two hours maybe...I just had to do something. Lying there, my mind was going everywhere that I didn't want it to be." He nodded slowly.

"I would of helped you."

She shrugged. "I wanted to let you sleep..." She was sore, but she didn't want to admit it. She decided to ignore it. "Who all is here? Do you know?"

"Lizzie, Mika, Beth, Judith, and a few others I think..."

"Where's Patrick?"

"He...he's gone too..."

"Oh," she frowned. She wasn't going to break her vow not the cry anymore. She had decided that she would not shed a tear ever again, no matter what. "You remembered to bring comic books here, didn't you?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, they're in my bag."

"Good...Good."

Carl didn't bring up the fact that McKenna was acting differently. Her shoulder muscles were rigid with every move and her face was tense.

"Should I go wake the others or just leave their food out? It's just dry cereal..."

"Let them sleep," he said. "We can eat and then go read for a while..."

"Alright, that's a plan."

So that was what they did, they sat down to eat their dry cereal, side by side.

"Luck Charms are way better," she frowned, eating a dry fruit loop.

"I like Coco Pebbles," Carl said.

"Those are good too. I like Fruity Pebbles better than Coco Pebbles."

Somehow, they got into a deep conversation about breakfast food. Waffles or Pancakes? Cherry or Strawberry Poptarts? Apple or orange juice? They both preferred pancakes and cherry Poptarts, but McKenna liked orange juice better and Carl liked apple.

They eventually went back to the room that they were sharing and together read on Carl's makeshift bed. It had started off with McKenna deciding to try and annoy him by lying there, but then he kind of just went along with it.

This felt normal. This felt like something that they could do on a normal day when they didn't just lose a bunch of people and there wasn't a deadly flu going around.

"What did you used to be when you grew up?" McKenna asked, closing her comic book but keeping her thumb on the page. She avoided the zombie one that Carl had been reading the day before like the plague.

"Realistically or just what I wanted to be when I was like four?"

"Either," she said at first. "Both," she was curious as to what he wanted to be when he was four because of the way that he phrased it.

"Well, I did want to be batman," he said in a serious tone before looking at her with a large grin. She couldn't help but begin laughing really hard, maybe a little bit too hard but the fact that she hadn't really laughed in a while made it have a greater affect. "I watched a lot of TV! And then I wanted to be a cop like my dad...But now, if the world was the way it was...I would want to be comic book writer...After everything that's happened, I think that I could write this awesome series and I think it would be awesome. What about you?"

"I wanted to be a singer when I was little...but then I made the fatal discovery that I'm tone deaf."

"You can't be that bad."

"I couldn't carry a tone if I had a steel lock box with an unbreakable padlock. You have no idea. I sound like a howler monkey in a blender. It's the worst thing ever."

"I don't think that you could have that bad of a voice. Sing something."

"No."

"Come on...Sing something. Prove to me you're a terrible singer."

"Fine," she sighed. She didn't know what to sing. She hadn't heard music in so long.

_"We were both young when I first saw you. I close my eyes and the flashback starts: I'm standing there on a balcony in summer air. See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns. See you make your way through the crowd and say hello. Little did I know..._

_ "That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles, And my daddy said stay away from Juliet. And I was crying on the staircase begging you please don't go. _

_ "And I said Romeo take me some place we can be alone. I'll be waiting all that's left to do is run. You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess, it's a love story, baby just say yes." _she paused, looking at him, waiting for him to tell her to stop.

_ "_ Keep going," he said, looking at her with wide blue eyes. He didn't know where she got the whole tone deaf thing from, but he thought that she sang beautifully.

"You sure?" she asked. He nodded quickly. "O-Okay..." The next verse came back to her quickly._"So I sneak I sneak out to the garden to see you. We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew so close your eyes. Escape this town for a little while. Oh-oh. _

_ "'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter and my daddy said stay away from Juliet. You were everything to me, I was beggin' you please don't go. And I said..._

_ "Romeo take me some place we can be alone. I'll be waiting all that's left to do is run. You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess, it's a love story, baby just say yes._

_ "Romeo, save me they're trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult but it's real. Don't be afraid we'll make it out of this mess. It's a love story baby just say yes. Oh, oh._

_ "I got tired of waiting. Wondering if you were every coming around. My faith in you was fading when I met you on the outskirts of town. And I said..._

_ "Romeo save me, I've been feeling so alone. I keep waiting for you but you never come. Is this all in my head? I don't know what to think. He knelt to the ground pulled out a ring and said..._

_ "Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone. I love you and that's all I really know. I talked to your dad – picked out white dress. It's a love story, baby just say yes..._

_ "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. 'Cause we were both young when I first saw you." _

"See, I'm terrible," McKenna told him. Carl just stared at her, his blue eyes didn't leave her green ones once. "Carl..." she said softly, but he didn't say anything, a moment later, she fell under whatever trance he was under. She could feel the heat of his face as it neared hers. Her heart pounded hard and fast in her chest. She had never even been close to kissing a boy before and she was so afraid that she would be bad at it. She recognized that was what was about to happen because of the movies she had seen a lifetime ago.

Carl didn't know if he could go through with he. All he knew was he wanted to kiss her, he wanted to know what that was like...but he didn't know how. He had seen couples kiss, but he didn't know how he was supposed to do it. He knew it wasn't supposed to be like when it grandma used to kiss him on the mouth, that was weird and kind of creepy. He didn't want to give McKenna a grandma on the mouth kiss, he wanted it to be like a real, romantic kiss so he backed away. He saw her cheeks turn bright red as she picked up her comic book to hide her embarrassment.

He wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault that it was his for not knowing how to kiss her, but he couldn't make words. His cheeks grew warm as the blood rushed there. He needed to find out how to kiss and then he would do it, he would kiss her.

**AN: What'd you think? I know that this one was shorter than the other ones were but ****FallenAngelEM**** has been a major help to me in writing this story, she has helped me to make it soooo much better! She also made some epic banners for it that I need to put up! Please review your thoughts on this chapter! **


	4. Chapter 4

McKenna tried to pretend that she and Carl hadn't been mere centimeters from kissing. She tried to read her comic book but it wasn't working. She rose from Carl's bed and walked over to her own bed. "I'm going to take a nap. I'm feeling tired." She knew that she didn't sound convincing, but she didn't care.

"Okay..." he replied, feeling awkward. It was the first word that he had said to her and he couldn't say any more. Once her back was turned and she had the blanket over her head, he crept out of the room and went outside. He wasn't supposed to be outside, but he had to, this was important. He ran up into the guard tower without being seen. He had memorized the watched schedule and if he was right, Daryl would be up there by himself right then.

"Daryl," he called softly. The dark haired man turned around and glared at Carl.

"The hell ya doin' up 'ere?" he pulled his bandana over his mouth so that he couldn't breath on Carl.

"This is really important."

"Better be."

"How do you kiss a girl?"

Daryl was speechless. He had no idea what to make of that. "The hell ya askin' me for?" his voice rose, he still saw Carl as somewhat of a kid and he shouldn't be asking about kissing anybody. Daryl hadn't even kissed anybody in recent time.

"I figured that you would know about this stuff," Carl admitted.

"Hell no! Who 're ya tryin' to kiss?"

"McKenna..." Carl's voice was shy. "I just...I don't know how."

Daryl didn't know what to say at all. He was at a loss for words. Luckily, he was saved by Glenn climbing up into the tower.

"He'll help ya!" Daryl huffed, leaving the tower as soon as Glenn got up there, leaving the younger man rather confused, he knitted his brow and looked at Carl as Daryl disappeared.

"Can I hold her?" McKenna asked Beth, who was holding Judith. She left her bed soon after she heard Carl leave.

"Sure," Beth smiled. McKenna took the baby and held her close. McKenna had always loved children, babies especially.

"How do you know if a boy wants to kiss you?" the younger of the two found herself asking.

"What do you mean?"

"Earlier...I was...I was sitting with Carl, and he started at my eyes for a long time. Then he like leaned closer to me, but then he moved away really quickly. He wanted to kiss me, didn't he?" She knew that she could be misreading the situation so she wanted to be sure.

Beth wanted to have one of those "Aww" moments but she retained it. "He was definitely about to kiss you," she confirmed.

"Then why didn't he?"

"Maybe he was nervous," Beth said.

"But things are going to be awkward now...Maybe he changed his mind. Maybe he doesn't really want to kiss me..."

"You could kiss him," she suggested like it was so simple.

"Yes because I could do that!" McKenna said sarcastically. She let her head fall back against the wall behind her. Beth took the baby back.

"You could. Next time you two are alone, just get him to look at you and kiss him."

"I don't even know how!"

"You just take your lips and put them to his," Beth replied. "It's not hard..." She went into a little bit more detail but all that happened was McKenna grew even more nervous.

"I can't do any of that..."

"Sure you can. It's not hard."

Nighttime came. At diner, Carl and McKenna hadn't looked at each other, but now, they were in the same room and they had to speak so that they couldn't make it that much more awkard.

"Um...Do you think that you could sleep over here again?" McKenna asked, finding an outfit suitable to sleep in.

"You want me to?" Carl asked, looking over at her. She nodded and pulled out a larger t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

"If you wouldn't mind..."

"O-kay," he agreed.

"I'm going to change, stay turned around," she warned him, quickly changing out of her regular t-shirt and jeans. "Done," she replied, crawling into the bed. He came over a moment later. He joined her under the blankets and rolled over to face her. He oped that she would do the same so that he could kiss her. Glenn had been a little bit more help than Daryl had been, but not much.

When she didn't roll over to face him, he decided that he would get her attention instead. "McKenna..."

"Hm?" when he didn't say anything else, she rolled over to face him. He frowned a little and gained his confidence before pecking her lips and pulling away quickly. His cheeks turned bright red and he looked away.

"So you did want to kiss me earlier," was all she said.

"Yeah...I'm sorry."

"You didn't do it right...Not according to Beth anyway."

"What do you-" She pressed his lips to his and held him there for longer. He felt the nervousness lift away from him.

"You're supposed to do it like that...I think..." she moved her face away from his and rested her head on the pillow.

"You're probably right..." he admitted. He wanted to kiss her again, he liked the stranger, but comfortable feeling he had with being so close to her, deciding that he didn't have anything to lose, he kissed her, the right way this time around. "So what does this mean?" he asked. "Are we boyfriend and girlfriend...or-?" he felt the heat in his cheeks even as he said it.

"Maybe if you asked me nicely enough," she joked, her smile wouldn't leave her face.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" he asked, his voice wavering a little.

"Hmm," she pretended to consider it. "Yeah, I think I could do that."

"Yeah?" his voice cracked a little bit.

"Yes."

**AN: I'm sorry guys, it was really short. Sorry, I just wasn't quite sure where to go after that. Please review anyway :)**


	5. Chapter 5

"You're going with that group in the morning, aren't you?" Marlene sat down with her legs hanging over the edge of the guard tower. She didn't want to go stay in C with the other prison residence, so she decided that the watch tower would be the best place for her that night. Daryl, pretty much lived up there, so it seemed, so they were stuck together for the night.

"Mm hm," Daryl leaned his elbows against the railing and stared off into the distance.

"You got room for one more? I'm a great shot," she would do anything if it meant that she could leave the prison for a while. Even though she was bottling it in, she was still reeling from the loss of William. Even though he wasn't much older than her, she viewed him as a fatherly figured because hers had walked out on her and her mother when she was two.

"'M not sure what car we're takin' yet...Migh' be a tight squeeze..."

Earlier that day, Karen and David had come down with the same illness that had began in D.

"I'll be fine," she said. She prayed that she didn't get the illness. "You think things'll get better? Maybe Karen and David will be the only ones to get it..."

"Ain't likely," Daryl said. Wishful thinking wasn't going to get them anywhere. The conversation died quickly because Marlene wanted to have the hope that things would be okay, but Daryl was too much of a realist to even consider that as a possibility. Although, he surprised them both by starting up a new conversation. "McKenna, what's she to ya?" he was curious. He had seen them all hanging around but Marlene had never actually said if they were related or just close.

"Her dad saved my life...I was by myself and I had run out of ammo and he came in and saved me...William was so heroic...I don't...I don't know how things happened in D..." she regained her composure, refusing to cry. "To answer your question, I'm like an adoptive aunt or big sister if you will...Why?"

"Jus' wonderin'..."

"Have you heard anything from the office blocks?"

Daryl thought back to his conversation with Carl earlier and looked away.

"What is it?" Marlene asked, pulling herself to her feet. She watched his face, his mouth twitched like he was repressing a smile. "Tell me," she demanded.

"Nothin' big."

"Daryl, I will kick your ass if you don't tell me." She threatened and he just rolled his eyes. "You think I wouldn't?"

"Not like I coul' fight ya back..."

"Why? 'Cause ya can't hit a girl," she said playfully.

"'Xacatly," he murmured, looking somewhere far away.

"Somebody raised you right," she jokingly punched his arm. If he felt it, she had no idea because he didn't move a centimeter.

She didn't know the irony that statement held. She didn't know that he had been raised around the opposite of respecting women and that was why had had vowed never to act like his father. He had promised himself that he would never lay a hand on a woman or child.

Daryl continued to look away and Marlene found herself frowning. She wasn't sure why what she had said hit a nerve, but clearly, it had. "I'm sorry...I don't know what it is but...I'm sorry." She could be playfully mean, but she never wanted to legitimately be mean to him and if she had offended him, she would apologize. He shrugged in response. "Now will you tell me whatever it was?" she asked, referring to their earlier conversation.

He wanted to get away from the topic of his family or the abuse that had occurred so he decided that he had to tell her. "Carl came up 'ere an' asked me how he's 'possed to kiss somebody."

Marlene nearly exploded with laughter. She couldn't stop it because the whole situation was hilarious. "You? He asked _you_ how to kiss? Because you're such a ladies' man, right?" she couldn't contain herself. Her stomach muscles ached and her cheeks hurt. "That just made my dad!"

Daryl rolled his eyes, but smirked a little. "Why do ya think he's askin' that?" he already knew that it was McKenna that Carl was trying to kiss and when Marlene realized that, she stood in horror.

"I'm gonna cut his lips off! They aren't old enough for that!" she saw McKenna as a child still and she could not accept that she was simply old enough to start kissing boys. That just wasn't natural! She heard a sound from Daryl that sounded like a laugh and she gasped. "Oh my God, it really is the apocalypse. Daryl Dixon just laughed!" She exclaimed. "I really don't know how Carl could think that you know anything about kissing girls. You're too grumpy for anybody but Carol to want to kiss you," she joked. She didn't mean to let the Carol part out, but it was kind of obvious what the older woman thought of Daryl and Marlene couldn't old it in.

Daryl sent a glare Marlene's way. He didn't think of Carol like that, she was more of the motherly figure that he never had.

Even though Marlene was almost sure that Daryl probably wanted to push her off the guard tower most of the time that they were up there, she couldn't stop her joking. That was how she coped with things, some people cried, others got really mad, but Marlene made it all into one big joke, it was easier than facing the world for what it was. She had done that since she was a child and it used to always get her in trouble. She was used to people thinking that she was "mean" or people calling her a "bitch" behind her back in high school. She just laughed at them and moved on.

The smell was unimaginable. The sight was unbearable. Marlene felt physically ill just being near the charred skin burned to the concrete. She could feel the bile rising from her stomach, but she held it back. She refused to let it come out. She took a few steps back and let Rick, Daryl, and Tyreese argue it out. She didn't even realize why Tyreese was a part of this until she realized that one of the charred, unrecognizable parts of burnt skin was Karen. She was dead. Gone. And somebody had murdered her.

First, Rick and Tyreese got into a physical fight. Rick's ended up messing up his hand and Tyreese and Daryl started to get into it. Seeing what a loose cannon the man was becoming, Marlene pulled out her gun and was prepared to use it if she had to. Daryl saw this and held up a hand to keep her from doing it. Tyreese pushed his back against a brick wall and Daryl knew that he could get out of it, if he tried, but he didn't want to further anger the man. Reasoning with him seemed like the much better option at the moment.

"We're gonna sort it all out," Daryl said. When Tyreese still didn't back off, Marlene took a step closer.

"If you want to find who did this, you should let him go. It wasn't him," her voice was quiet at first, she didn't want to be anywhere near that bodies-if you could call them that. But, she wanted to make sure that Tyreese wasn't going to lose it.

He eventually backed off and hurried back inside the prison. Marlene just looked at Daryl and frowned. "Whoever did do this, I have a feeling that they're going to end up just like this..." It only seemed fitting to Marlene. Anybody that could do this, was sick, very sick and she believed that they deserved this.

"If he's got anythin' to say 'bout it," Daryl agreed. "We need to have a council meetin' 'bout this..." He meant all of it, the illness and the burnt people.

"Let me help you with your hand," Marlene offered Rick. Neither of them would go to the council meeting because Rick was afraid of the power making decisions held and Marlene wasn't on the council, not that she wanted to be anyway. She could see that his hand was messed up, even from there. It was bent and he was even holding it weirdly.

"Ya know how? I can find Hershel?"

"I do, besides, they need him on the council."

She made a good point so he nodded and led the way back into the prison.

"More people are starting to get sick..." Marlene pointed out to Maggie. They talked pretty often, though they were standing a good distance away from each other this time around, Marlene didn't want to spread any of her germs that she may have to Maggie.

"I kno'..." Maggie frowned. She hated the idea of losing people to some crazy flu after they had survived the dead rising. It made absolutely no senses whatsoever.

"What did the council decide?"

"We're clearin' out A for the sick...Gotta keep 'em away from everybody else."

"Death row?" Maggie nodded. "That's kind of sick, don't you think?" A nervous laugh almost escaped from Marlene's throat.

Maggie realized it too and frowned. These people had numbered days, just like the former residents of A block, except the sick wouldn't get three hot meals a day.


	6. Chapter 6

"What are your plans for today?" Carl asked McKenna as they began sorting through their clothes to find something to wear.

"Uh, I was thinking about going and talking to Beth for a while...y'know, keep her company. You?"

"Check in on everybody, make sure they're all okay."

"Fun," she smiled jokingly.

"My dad put me in charge of keeping watch over the everybody here, so that's what I got to do."

Fun was kind of a relative term anymore if McKenna talked about it. What was real fun like? She remembered one time when she was about four and her parents took her to Chuck-e-Cheese. That had been fun. And video games, those were always fun too. But now, was reading comic books still something that could be considered fun? Even though the world was different?

"You still here?" Carl moved closer to McKenna and there was only about a foot of space between them.

"Hm? Sorry..." she found herself blushing a little. "I was thinking..."

"About what?"

"Nothing important...You should probably get to checking on everybody."

With a burst of bravery, she pressed her lips to his for no more than couple seconds and ran off out the door. She looked over her shoulder at him and grinned.

Carl's cheeks warmed as McKenna went on. He didn't know much about relationships, but he did know that he liked when they kissed. It made him feel different...It made him forget that he was living in a hellish world with cannibalistic dead people.

"Glenn's sick and I...I don't know what to do," the stress and the pain was so clear in Maggie's voice that it made Beth and McKenna's hearts hurt. It was clear that Maggie and Glenn were so in love that it was physically painful.

"I...I need to go," McKenna stood up and left room. They were talking through the wall so that they couldn't spread germs. "I'm sorry," she jogged down the hallway and let out a low sigh. She couldn't let herself get like that. She couldn't allow herself to fall so head over heels that she physically hurt when there was a fear that something could happen to him. In this world, it was obvious that there was always going to be the constant danger of that other person being lost.

She couldn't go back up to her room with Carl, she couldn't think of any of that. She had a boyfriend now, but all she wanted to do was avoid him so that she didn't get even more attached than she was, she couldn't depend on having him beside her because she knew that it was very possible that he wouldn't be there.

She found herself with tears in her eyes. She smacked the concrete wall and then sat against the other side. She pulled her knees up against her chest and sobbed. Everything was getting to be too much. She thought that she could live with her father's death, but she was falling to pieces. Carl had made everything better for a while, but once she realized that he could be gone at any moment, all of that comfort was gone.

"Hey," a hand on her upper arm made her look up with her eyes wide with fear. The cool blue orbs that she met belonged to Carl and her frown deepened. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "I...Everything." She decided that was the best fit for what was wrong. Everything. There wasn't one even that made it all so terrible.

"C'mon, we can go talk."

"No," she wiped her eyes. "Carl...I...I can't be your girlfriend."

"W-why not?"

"I can't let myself love you like Maggie loves Glenn. I can't...I just..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Glenn's sick, Carl. He's sick and if he dies, Maggie is going to lose it. I can't be like that, I can't get any closer to you than being friends..."

"Nothing's going to happen to me." He didn't understand. He thought that she was happy with being his girlfriend. He liked her a lot and he thought that she felt the same way.

"You can't promise me that."

"So what? You're going to be afraid to live?" She didn't know how to respond to that.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just know that I can't handle losing anybody else."

"So you think that it'll be worse to just lose me as a friend?"

"I don't know, okay? I don't know what to do in this situation! I've never had a boyfriend before and...and it's not easy! You've been my best friend since I got here and I don't know how you're supposed to treat a boyfriend."

"So we're breaking up?"

McKenna shrugged. "Yeah..." she tucked her hair behind her ears and stood up. "I still wanna be your friend though."

Slowly, he nodded. He was still kind of confused as to what was really going on.

"Wanna go read comic books?" she gave him a small smile, hoping that it would help to mind everything that she had just shattered. She didn't want to do it, she just couldn't stand to let them be like Glenn and Maggie.

McKenna was so happy to be able to feel the sun against her skin again. She had missed that more than anything else. She breathed in and fresh air filled her lungs. She loved it so much.

"Hey munchkin," Marlene greeted.

"Hey!" McKenna exclaimed, smiling widely. "Can we take watch, I want to talk to you..."

"Yeah. We can just tell Daryl to take a hike and we'll have the watchtower all to ourselves."

"Cool."

Marlene led McKenna up into the watchtower and sure enough, Daryl was standing with his elbows on the railing.

"Yo, Dixon, take a hike."

McKenna found herself giggling at the fact that Marlene had used that phrasing.

"Hell no. Git yer own tower."

"Nah, I like this one. Besides, McKenna wants to talk to me."

"So go find a bathroom. Ain't that were y'all 're supposed to gossip?" He replied stubbornly.

"Yeah, if we had a non-unisex bathroom, that's where I'd be. But since we don't, this is the best we've got. Besides, you need some sleep. You've been up here for like five straight hours. Go."

Daryl glared at her, his blue eyes meeting her hazel ones for a moment before he gave in and left, mumbling something about how silly gossiping was.

He was making his way back towards the prison when Carl started coming up to him.

"No," Daryl told the boy. "I ain't tellin' ya 'bout anythin'. No birds an' bees 'er whatever the hell that is."

"I need manly advice...Glenn's sick," Carl replied.

"Go find yer dad."

"Please," he begged.

"Fuck. Fine."

"Do you like Daryl?" McKenna asked Marlene.

"He's cool," she shrugged.

"No I mean like...Never mind, it's stupid," McKenna sighed. She didn't want to talk about her issues, but she kind of had to get it out in the open.

"What's going on with you?"

"Carl kissed me and then he was my boyfriend...and then I broke up with him because I couldn't handle losing him. But, now I'm afraid we can't be friends and...I'm so confused! Marlene, help me!"

"Wait this all happened in the few days that you were in quarantine?"

"Yeah..."

"Girl...Wow. Okay one thing at a time. He kissed you. What was that like?"

"I don't know...At first it was just like weird because it was like you would kiss that weird relative."

"Poor little awkward boy," Marlene laughed a little.

"It's like awkward between us now though. Help me!"

"I don't know how to help you, munchkin. You're just going to have to figure out how to make your friendship work again."

In a way, Daryl regretted ever being nice to Carl because now he was explaining all of his issues. Daryl wasn't good at this stuff, he never had been and he really didn't understand where the kid got the impression that he was from, if he ever found that person, he would probably shoot them.

"What would you do, Daryl?"

Carl had explained that he was tired of it all being incredibly awkward between him and McKenna and that part of him just wanted to not be friends because of the awkwardness but he liked being close to her and that none of it made any sense to him.

"Don' kno'."

"That doesn't help."

"Tol' ya."

"Come on. You've got to know _something_."

"If 's that awkward, jus' stay 'way from 'er."

That sounded easy enough. He could avoid it being awkward if he stayed away from her. Okay. Carl would do that. He would avoid McKenna for the next days at the very least. If nothing else, things would become less complicated in that amount of time and then they could simply go back to being friends and reading comic books together. He hoped.

**AN: Sorry. This chapter is kind of sucky...it was just like a filler chapter...I only planned for that one middle portion to happen and the rest was kind of random. And, after last night's episode, I just want to get to the second half of the season and I wanted to speed things up a little. They'll slow down after next chapter. I have the next chapter done because I didn't realize that I hadn't posted this one...whoops. **


	7. Chapter 7

She wasn't sure how it happened. One minute, McKenna was helping to get everybody on the bus and the next, she was all alone. The prison area was empty and she hadn't seen a living soul in a good fifteen minutes. She knew that she needed to make her way out. She didn't know if anybody was alive, but she couldn't give up. She checked her gun at her side, it had ten rounds left. She noticed a discarded rifle and she picked it up, hoping that she could use it. She ran from the prison and into the woods. She just prayed that she would be able to meet up with someone from their group, she couldn't be the only one.

Twigs snapped beneath her boots as she stomped through the foliage. She realized that quieting her footsteps would be the smart thing so she attempted to make her footfalls quieter. The last thing that she wanted to do was to draw a walker's attention. She didn't know how well she would do completely on her own. She had never battled the rotten living dead, the last time Carl had been at her side and they had won the battle together.

Carl.

Could he be dead? Was it possible that her best friend, her first boyfriend, and first kiss was just gone? She didn't know if she could live in a world without him. Pressure built up behind eyes and nose. She didn't want to cry. She wiped her eyes to try to eliminate the moisture. She knew what would happen if she started crying. She wouldn't be able to stop.

She pushed her feet forward and decided to keep going. The further she got away from the prison, the better. The walkers were going to be drawn to that place like a lion to fresh, bloody meat. It was sick to think about how similar that was to how the walkers thought. McKenna couldn't stop her mind from picturing all of her loved ones being torn apart, bit by bit. Marlene's face screaming in agonizing pain sent chills though her body. She needed to get rid of all of those mental images. She had to power through it all and pray to find everyone once again. She needed to find someone at the very least. It wasn't that she was incapable of taking care of herself, it was that she knew that there was safety in numbers and one person on their own couldn't make it. Not for too long anyway.

She could feel her pulse with every inch of her skin that touched the rough, scratchy bark from the tree. Her muscles called out in pain as she pulled herself higher onto a new limb. She didn't have any extra clothing or blankets, so she sat on the tall branch-a good ten feet from the ground-and hugged her knees. She rested her forehead against the sharp bones at the top and tried to calm her breathing. She could feel the tears welling up again. She was too young to be on her own. She was too young to survive without any help. She hadn't even found food in the whole day that she had been by herself. She actually thought that she may have been walking in circles for most of the day because she had come across nothing.

She also knew that the loneliness would drive her insane. She missed speaking to another human being. She missed having a conversation or even just hearing some other voice, the one in her head was driving her nuts. Not only that, but it would have distracted her from dwelling on the problems that she had.

"Breath, McKenna," she told herself. It was stupid, she knew, but she wanted to hear something out loud. Her own footsteps was a sound that she despised at this point. She had always hated the silence, she used to love music and when she would sleep back home, she would always have it playing just for the sake of sound. Now, her only music was the melody produced by the crickets and other night crawlers as she tried to force herself into sleep. She knew that she needed it and she also knew that tomorrow would be more physically straining than today had been. Her muscles would be sore and she would have to continue to push forward.

As she tried to close her eyes and rest, tears dripped from her green eyes and she couldn't contain herself any more. She had to let it all out. She silently sobbed to herself and thought about how things would be if this was it for her. If everyone was gone. She would die alone by walkers-or maybe starvation-and nobody would ever know. She also considered that Carl or Marlene could be alive and that they would find her as a walker, or see her as a mangled, unrecognizable body and keep moving. She didn't think that she could survive on her own for more than a few days and she was probably right.

"I don't need you anymore. I don't need you to protect me anymore! I can take care of myself. You probably couldn't protect me anyways! You couldn't protect Judith. Or Mc-Hershel...or Glenn, or Maggie, Michonne, Daryl. Or mom. You just wanted to plant vegetables! You just wanted to hide. He knew where we were and you didn't care! You didn't do anything about it! You just wanted to pretend and hide behind those cameras! They're all gone now because of you! You were their leader, you were supposed to protect them!"

Carl glared at his unconscious father. This was his fault. Rick hadn't protected them and now the rest of the group was gone. If Rick would have taken better precautions, they would have been safe, they could have continued to live at the prison in peace. But Rick couldn't even do that. He let the Governor come in and kill them all.

"I would be just fine if you died," he murmured. He tried to will the thoughts to just go away on their own.

Annoyed, Carl left the house by himself and went off to find supplies since his father wouldn't. He couldn't believe that the man that he once thought was like Superman could just be knocked out by one physical fight with the Governor that happened yesterday. He should have been fine, moreover, he was a cop and he should have been able to beat the Governor, not just lie there and give up. Carl could see just how weak his father was.

McKenna trudged though the woods, her weight was more than her body could handle at this point, she was greatly fatigued and she hadn't eaten since the day before yesterday. She regretted skipping breakfast the day before and she also regretted never going on a hunting trip with her father. He used to go with his friends, but she was always against it and now that was biting her in the ass. She leaned against a tree for support. For only a moment, she allowed her eyes to close and her head to droop against the tree trunk. It made a much better pillow than she thought that it would. It was solid, but she couldn't care less at that moment. She just wanted to sleep. Sleeping was always-

A growl emerged from behind her and she whipped around and pulled out her knife. There was a tall walker, he had probably neared six foot when he was alive. She cursed her small size for the millionth time and backed up. She could see his dull gray, rotting skin really well from the few feet between them. His milky white eyes trained on her and she gulped. She wasn't sure how she would be able to reach him and stab him. She couldn't risk the gun shot. She knew that she would not be able to make a speedy get away from this point. More would be on her tail in only a few moments.

"C'mere," she called. She took a step back onto a fallen log. She was nearly his height now. She waited until he was close enough and she used all of the strength she had to shove the knife in to the top of his skull. When he fell, he pulled her down with her. It took great mite for her to pull the knife out and to stand up.

No sooner than she accomplished this was she tackled to the ground. The sheer force of the walker knocking her back onto her left wrist sent a wave of pain throughout her body. She couldn't move her left wrist at all and it was under her body. She pulled up her knife to some how stab this new walker. She was female, the same gray skin and milky eyes as the male but she had bald patches on her head. Where there was hair, it was dirty; filled with dirt and blood. She thought that it may have been blonde at one point but she couldn't be sure.

McKenna tried to get a good shot at the walker's head, but it wasn't working out too well. She didn't have great mobility and the things rotting mouth was getting closer and closer to her flesh. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it was better to just stop now because she knew that her death was inevitable. She would die soon enough so why wait?

"I'm sorry I'm not stronger," she whispered.

_Bang_.

The walker went limp as it pinned McKenna to the ground. Somebody had shot it. The only question was who? She didn't see anybody...

**AN: Sorry, short again and sorry for the jumping over the mid-season finale...I just couldn't remember much of it and I figured that this was well enough...I don't like to reuse too much from the show (dialogue wise) and that's what would have happened if I would have gone back and watched it. I need to stop doing that...I'm getting lazy with all of my stories, but I really wanted to end it here because I'm mean with my cliff hangers lol. Who to y'all think shot the walker? **


	8. Chapter 8

"Who are you?" McKenna looked at her savior in shock. It was a boy about a year older than her. He sandy blonde hair and deep brown eyes. His hair was cut short and pushed away from his forehead.

"Bentley. A thank ya migh' be nice," his southern accent was thick as he took a step closer to her, he had a shot gun in his arms and he looked pretty terrifying for being so young.

"Thank you...Sorry I just...Thank you a lot..." She couldn't get her words to make sense.

"Ya got a name?"

"Uh...McKenna..."

"McKenna. Whatcha doin' all by yerself?"

"I lost my group. I don't even know if they're alive...Do you have a group?"

"Been on my own for 'while now. Was jus' me an' my sister..." Bentley had a twin sister, Mia, but he lost her long ago. One of the walkers got her.

"Oh..."

"We can work together if ya want...If ya fin' yer group, I join y'all." He was tired of doing it all on his own.

"Deal," she agreed.

Carl had given up, he was just going to let his zombie father eat him. He didn't see why else to keep going, he needed his dad-rather he liked it or not-and he knew that he couldn't survive all on his own. But, he was lucky. His dad wasn't a walker and now he was standing again.

They were at the couch that Rick had been sleeping on, trying to simply understand everything. "If I do ever actually turn," Rick looked to his son. "You've gotta kill me...You can't quit..."

Carl hung his head, knowing that it was true, if he wanted to live that was. "I just-" A knock on the door made him forget whatever he was going to say. He backed up and Rick looked through the peephole. A broad smile took home on Rick's features as he began to laugh so hard that he fell back onto the couch. "What?" Carl asked.

"It's for you."

"For me?" Carl made his way over to the door. He was too scared to actually look out the peephole. There were so many people that he hoped it was, it could be anybody. A small part of him hoped that it was McKenna over anybody else. It was her face that he wanted to see.

Carl was happy with the face that he saw, but it wasn't McKenna. It was Michonne. He couldn't help but be thankful that somebody else from their group was alive. Sometimes, that was all that he could ask for. The little things in life was all that they could get anymore, it would be too much to ask to get everything that he wanted.

"I can look at yer wrist," Bentley offered. "Ya fell pretty hard on it, didn't ya?"

"You know about that stuff?" she asked.

"My mom was nurse, lemme see it," McKenna stopped and held out her wrist to Bentley. He gingerly felt the bones and she winced. It was swollen and was in terrible need of being put on ice. "Migh' be fractured...I don' think 's broken though. We do need ta wrap it."

"How are we going to do that?"

"We'll find someplace an' take care of it. 'Til then, I don' want ya movin' it too much."

"Okay," she nodded slowly and followed him further into the woods. "How long have you been on your own?"

"Couple months. You?"

"Like a day...I feel so pathetic. I wish I was so brave."

"Don' mistake bravery fer me bein' col'. I've gotta be dis way 'er I'll die."

"You have to have some sort of bravery to still be here. If you were a coward, you would have killed yourself," McKenna reasoned.

"Maybe," Bentley shrugged.

After quite a while of walking, they came across a small suburban area. One of the stores happened to be a drug store and Bentley lead the way inside.

"Did you ever tell anybody else?" Carl asked, referring to Michonne telling him about her son, Andre, who had died at the beginning of the end of the world.

"Nope."

"You're secret's safe with me..."

"It's not a secret."

"It's still safe with me." After few moments, Carl frowned. "Can you keep a secret?"

Michonne turned to him, glad to hopefully be getting to the bottom of what was making Carl so upset. "Of course."

"You can't tell anybody, not even my dad."

"I swear I won't. Just between us."

"I wish...I wish that McKenna was here. I like her-a lot-and I just...I want her to go back to being my girlfriend."  
"Back to?"

"Yeah...when we were in the office blocks, she was my girlfriend but then she said that it would be too hard to lose somebody else and now she's probably dead..."

"You don't know that, she could be alive," she frowned deeply, feeling bad for the boy.

"Slim chances aren't exactly a thing that I rely on," Carl hated the fact that he couldn't do anything to protect her. That was what a boyfriend was supposed to do, protect his girlfriend, and even though they were broken up, that didn't mean that he didn't have any feelings for her. She was his first kiss and the first girl that he had ever liked enough to kiss. He didn't even care if he never got to kiss her again, as long as she was alive.

"And you shouldn't..." She wished that she could tell him that it would be okay to think that McKenna was alive, but it would only hurt him in the long run. It would only make everything ten times harder on him if he did nothing but sit around and hope that she was alive and that they would somehow find her. Maybe it was best for all of them to just assume that everyone from the prison was dead, even though the likeliness that they were the only ones that had made it out seemed kind of slim. Somebody had to have survived, right? They did have some people that could handle themselves in so many situations that it would be kind of foolish to think that they had just died at the prison. They could be scattered trying to do the same thing that Michonne, Carl, and Rick were doing. They could be focusing on their own survival too.

"Better?" Bentley asked, smiling at McKenna as he wrapped her wrist. The way he looked at her with concern reminded her of Carl. Even though she could be a smart ass and they would pick at each other sometimes, he was always looking out for her and he always had concern in his bright blue eyes.

"Yeah...Thanks." She tried to forget about the blue eyed boy and just pull herself together. She regretted not spending more time with him back at the prison. She regretted not kissing him again, she had this weightless, happy feeling when she kissed him that she missed more than anything.

"Ya good to go?" Bentley started to walk away but McKenna couldn't let him do that just yet.

"Wait a minute," she called. He turned around and faced her. She was sitting on a counter, on account of her height so that he could examine her wrist so now they were eye level. She bit her lip before growing her bravery. She pressed her lips to his, trying to duplicate her kiss with Carl.

Much to her displeasure, she didn't get the same weightless, happy feeling that she had with Carl. She didn't feel much of anything so she just frowned. "I'm sorry...I..."

"'S 'kay. Ya never got to do that, righ', an' ya wanted to know what it was like?"

"Something like that," she jumped off the counter, sending a wave of pain up her legs and torso and down her arm, into her wrist. She ignored it and followed him out of the small store. They walked down the road and there was a house that had voices...people voices. The two shared a look and decided to get a closer look when there were screams of terror from inside. All they saw was a man running across the yard.

Once he got a little closer, McKenna's heart nearly leaped from her chest. She knew him, she knew him very well. Even though he looked like he was in rough shape, he was alive. She ran towards him and when he noticed her, he looked like he had seen a ghost.

"McKenna?" his jaw dropped.

"Hi, Rick," she smiled, biting her lip.

"We've gotta go," he led her to the tree she had been standing at with Bentley. But, there wasn't time for introductions because McKenna nearly fainted.

Walking up the path was someone that she thought that she would never lay eyes one again. She couldn't make her legs move, lucky for her, he took notice to her first. He started to yell, but thinking better of it, he just ran to her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Carl." She whispered, happy to have found him alive.

**AN: Sorry it's taken so long! I've been in the process of getting a job (I got one, I won't start until the end of April though) so that's been taking up quit a bit of my time, and there's school, driving school, and I've been sick on top of it. And, oh yeah, I forgot that I'm not Wonder Woman and I've been trying to write like five stories at once. That's working out real well...so sorry again. You're reviews would be much appreciated though :D**


	9. Chapter 9

"Stop a minute," McKenna stopped walking and watched as Carl moved in front of her and bent down. "You're shoe's untied," he clarified what he was doing as he started tying the laces.

"I can tie my own shoe, I'm not two," she replied.

"You do have a wrist injury though," he pointed out, standing back up. They made their way across the railroad tracks, following the path towards Terminus, a refugee camp-they hoped anyway.

"I still could have tied it," they fell into step once more. Michonne, Rick, and Bentley were all walking a few paces in front of them. Carl guessed that it was to give them some time to talk.

"I know...I'm glad you're a live though."

"Me too-about you, I mean." she didn't look at him while she said it, she stared at her shoe covered feet. She watched as the laces that Carl had just tied bounced up and down with every step. She had more to say, but she couldn't form the words. For now, she decided to just focus on her feet. She would tell them when they were truly alone. Their three counterparts could still hear them if they tried. "I didn't realize how lonely it is to be alone..." she knew it sounded stupid, but it was the first time that she had been all by herself. When she lost her mother, she had her father, when she lost him, she had Carl. Sure, Bentley came in, but he wasn't the same as having Carl or her father. He was just some random guy that saved her life. He wasn't the man that had been there all her life, or her best friend and the first boy that she ever kissed.

"You had him," Carl whispered and pointed to the fifteen year old.

"It wasn't the same," she looked up at him for the first time. "I didn't spend months reading comic books with him," she gave him a weak smile, it was going to be hard to find any sort of normal now. Everything had a different feel to it. She wondered if she would get the same free, floating feeling if she kissed him again.

_Don't do it_, the voice in the back of her mind told her. It would only further complicate things. They were already uneasy around each other and it would only get that much worse.

"Now we'll need to find a new way of bonding...I don't have any more comic books."

"That's okay, we'll figure it out," she wanted to reach out for some since of security. She knew if she moved her hand a few inches it would touch his. She had yet to hold hands with him-or anybody other than her parents-she wanted to try it. She reached her hand over and touched the back of his. His eyes darted down right away and she looked at him with a small, nervous smile. He looked up at her green eyes and realized that it wasn't an accident. He slowly brought his hand next to hers and then laced their fingers together.

As McKenna had guessed, it brought a feeling of safety to her, she felt a lot more comfortable at that moment.

"They're not all dead, y'know," Marlene said, glaring at Daryl as he led her further and further the other way. "We should go back the other way and find them." Still, he ignored her. She just sighed, knowing that she probably would never win an argument with him anyway. They were both stubborn, but he was even more so than she was.

They made their way out of the woods and onto a country road. There was one wrecked car and nothing but road. In the distance, they could hear growls. There were too many to run from or kill. Thinking fast, Daryl popped open the trunk and motioned for her to get in. She frowned before doing so. He joined her inside of the trunk and tied it shut from the inside.

"Stay quiet," he whispered as the growls grew louder.

"Duh," she replied, rolling her eyes.

They stayed like that for a while, Marlene didn't hear the growls anymore but she was honestly a little worried still. She didn't want leave just yet, but she had to follow Daryl's lead when he untied the trunk door and it flew open. He jumped out quickly and stood, waiting for her to get out.

"I think my leg's asleep," she used her arms to pull herself up and over to the edge of the trunk. He reluctantly held out his hand and helped her out of the trunk. "Thanks," she stomped her foot to make her leg wake up.

"C'mon, we gotta go," he called, leading the way back towards the woods.

"Here," Carl opened a can of pineapples with his knife and held it out to her. "I remember you saying that you liked them..."

"Thank you," she smiled, a little. She sipped some of the juice from it. "I miss can openers, don't you?"

"The knife still works pretty good."

They sat there in silence while the other three talked. McKenna rubbed her eyes, realizing that she was incredibly tired as she ate some of her pineapples.

"I think I'm going to sleep," she stood up from the wooden floor and headed towards the room that she was told that she could sleep in.

"Can I come with you?" Carl asked. Slowly, McKenna nodded. Carl stood up from the ground and followed her back to her room. There was a queen size bed in there and the window had no curtains on it.

"Carl," he looked up as soon as she said his name. "I...I was wrong."

"About what?"

"Back at the prison, when I said that it would be easier if I lost you and we weren't together...it wasn't easier..."

Carl wasn't sure what to say to that. "So what does that mean?" he decided to ask. McKenna just smiled a little and walked over to him on the other side of the bed.

"I would be happy to be your girlfriend again...if you'll let me."

"You want to be my girlfriend?"

She nodded, feeling very nervous. She was afraid to take this chance because if he said no then things would just get so awkward.

"What do you say?"

"Okay..." Carl looked up at her and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, it was more of a test kiss to make sure that she really meant it. He had missed her so much. When she didn't back away, he kissed her again for longer this time. In a way, they knew that it was naive to think that they could be happy, but they didn't care at that moment. They would be happy for as long as the apocalypse allowed them to be.

**AN: Well, I thought I already posted this one. Whoops. Well I've got the next one done anyhow :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I'm really starting to miss Carl :( so sorry about this chapter...**

"You got me again," McKenna pouted as Carl hit her hands. They were sitting on the bed, playing red hands. It was childish in a way, but they needed an escape from the everyday norm. "I think you're cheating."

"No," he laughed. "You're just bad at this game."

"That could be," she giggled a little. "Let's go again."

Before they could start the game again, a knock echoed throughout the room and Michonne walked in.

"We're leaving soon," she told them. The two nodded. "What are you two doing?" she asked curiously.

"Playing red hands," Carl replied, smiling a little.

"Well, your dad wanted me to tell you to get your stuff together," she decided to leave them alone for a while before they headed back out. "We've got about ten minutes and you should both eat something."

The two nodded and went to get their stuff ready to go. They packed their bags up and Carl picked up both of theirs. "You've got a hurt wrist," he reasoned.

"My shoulders are just fine," she replied.

"Let me do this," he gave her a reassuring look and headed for the door. She sighed, feeling useless as he took her bag for her. She would rather do it herself.

"You guys ready?" Rick asked, seeing them walk into the living room. He handed them each a can of fruit, knowing that they would need food to last them for a lot of walking.

"Yep," Carl said. It was obvious that Rick was still pretty bad off. But, despite what he thought before, he was happy that his dad was alive.

"Let's hit the road."

Bentley was right there with Michonne as they walked out the door. They made their way back onto the tracks and like yesterday, McKenna and Carl trailed behind the other three. They fell into step easily and kept up light conversation.

"Favorite thing to have on pizza?" Carl asked. They didn't know how or why, but they had started asking questions from before the world ended up this way.

"Pineapples," she replied. "You?"

"Ew. Fruit on pizza? What's wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me! It was good. Did you ever try it?

"Yeah and it was disgusting!"

"Whatever, what's your favorite then? Something gross like anchovies?"

"No, I like pepperoni."

"Ew, you're a weirdo," she mocked him playfully.

"You're the weirdo, weirdo," he bumped his shoulder into hers 'accidentally'.

"Nu uh, you're the definitely the weirdo. Don't even try to tell me otherwise."

"I will because it's the truth."

"Carl-I don't know your middle name-Grimes, don't be speaking lies."

"I'm not lying."

"Okay you two," Michonne looked back at them with a slight smile. "Enough flirting."

"We're not," they said in unison, blushing.

Bentley found himself slightly confused, by those two. When McKenna kissed him, he took it as she wanted to experience that part of life, but maybe that wasn't the case. Maybe she was trying to move on and it wasn't working out. She and Carl certainly seemed close, they had even slept in the same room the night before. He just wasn't really sure what to make of any of it.

"How's that wrist?" Bentley asked, falling back to walk beside the two.

"It's better. It was stiff when I woke up but I was even playing red hands with it, so it's fine, really," she shrugged. "That's why I _should_ be carrying my own bag," she gave a pointed look to her blue eyed counterpart.

"I can carry it just fine."

"You're such a pain in my butt, you know that?"

"You're a pain in mine too," he replied, childishly sticking his tongue out at her. She rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder playfully.

"How are you though, Bentley?" she asked. She felt like she owed him something. He did save her life after all.

"'M a'right. Got lot more safety than I had," he shrugged.

"Hopefully we'll have even more once we get to Terminus."

"Yeah...hope so."

Carl found himself bravely taking McKenna's hand in his as they walked. She didn't move away, her fingers laced with his and gave them a gentle squeeze. He wasn't sure why, but he all of a sudden didn't trust Bentley being any where near McKenna. She was _his _girlfriend not Bentley's. Carl wished that he was taller and didn't have his freckles. Bentley looked older and he had heard that girls liked older guys, that was why Beth didn't go for him. And before, there weren't any boys close to his age around that could be the one to be McKenna's boyfriend. But now, this guy shows up and saves her life!

"You okay?" McKenna was looking at him worriedly and he hadn't even noticed. She had a concerned look on her face and her green eyes were scanning over his features trying to judge what the problem may be.

"I'm uh..." he cleared his throat. "Fine. I'm fine. I was just thinking. Sorry."

"Okay," she pursed her lips before looking back at the railroad tracks beneath their feet.

"Fucking whore ass bitch slut ow-God that hurts!" Marlene cursed as Daryl looked at her ankle. She had fallen and twisted it. "Fuck you! You don't know what the-OW!-hell you're doing. Goddammit!"

"'S not even that bad," he told her.

"It's all swollen, look at it."

"Won't be too bad soon, c'mon," he stood up and held out a hand to help her up from the ground, not bothering to try to put her shoe back on. Her heel and ankle were far too swollen for the shoe to even fit back on her foot. Instead, he slipped it into her bag.

Marlene took his hand and he pulled her up. "Son of a bitch," she cursed as her heel touched the ground for a split second.

"Don' be a baby," he told her. He could tell that she wasn't exaggerating the pain though. Her ankle was badly injured and he needed to do something about it soon. But he knew if he told her that, she would feel that she had the right to complain and knowing Marlene, she would start messing with him for being nice.

"Daryl," she whined, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Won' go too far," he offered. She started to hop forward but she nearly fell. "Clumsy ass," he commented.

"You try hopping on one foot while the other one shoots pain up your leg for the movement," she glared at him. She sometimes wished that he was more sympathetic.

"C'mon," he ducked down a little and held his arm out for her to throw her arm over his shoulder. She did so and his arm closest to her went around her waist for further support.

Once she got the hang of hopping in unison with Daryl's steps and she learned out to ignore the pain, she felt more normal. "Hey Daryl," she murmured, looking at him, grinning a bit.

"What?" he asked, knowing that she was going to try to piss him off. He guessed that she liked seeing him annoyed.

"This is-" she nearly lost her balance, even with him mostly carrying her. He sighed, kept her on one foot and frowned.

"C'mon, lemme give ya a very serious piggyback ride," he offered.

"How's that serious?" she asked.

"'Cause yer a baby an' can't walk by yerself," he replied, bending down again so that she could get on his back.

With a sigh and much effort she wrapped her arms around his neck and he helped her up by holding onto her thighs.

"Yer one heavy baby," he commented.

"Is that a fat joke?" she replied. "Because if it is, I may have to tighten my grip," she moved her arms slightly tighter around his neck.

"Ain't a fat joke."

"Good." He walked further, still firmly having to hold onto her thighs. "If you weren't such an ass, this could be romantic," Marlene grinned jokingly from Daryl's back.

"Romantic?"

"Yeah, y'know a big strong man carrying the injured woman...but nope. You've gotta call me a baby for my hurt ankle. So, you fail. It's a good thing that I'm not into dirty rednecks anyway."

"An' I ain't into annoyin' smart mouths," he fired back.

"Touche," she smiled.

**AN: Obviously, Marlene is more or less taking Beth's place. No Bethly. For reference, Beth is with Maggie, Sasha, and Bob right now. I hope you guys liked this. But, I'm hopefully going to meet Chandler Riggs (Carl) this weekend :D I'm so excited lol maybe even Sean Patrick Flannery. Please review. **


	11. Chapter 11

"That's just sick," Marlene commented, looking at the walker in the coffin. She curled her lip in disgust and hopped away from it, back into the rest of the house. Now, she used walls for support instead of having Daryl carry her.

She couldn't understand why somebody would give a walker a funeral. The best thing that she could give them was a bullet between the eyes, it was sympathy and then they didn't have to suffer anymore, but whoever did it had to be crazy. She made her way into the kitchen and opened one of the cabinets. She looked at it with awe as she noted a lot of food inside. Daryl, walking in on silent hunter's feet stood beside her and looked too.

"This wasn't jus' left here," he noted. "Somebody's been savin' up."

She looked over at him and frowned. "Whether they're crazy or not, it wouldn't be right to take all of their food," she realized. She had a heart, even if she would rather focus on her own survival.

"We'll take some an' talk to 'im when an' if the come back," he suggested, with a shrug. Even he wanted something other than snake or something he could catch outside.

"Or we can leave them a note. I don't think that I wanna stick around long enough to see whoever is staying here," Marlene couldn't imagine actually meeting those weirdos.

"Either way," he shrugged. "Dibs on the pig's feet."

"You can have them," she wrinkled her nose. "Human feet gross me out, I won't be anywhere near you when you eat those nasty things."

"So ya've never dated a guy with a foot fetish."

"God no! Yuck!"

Daryl couldn't help but laugh a little. It took a lot to bother Marlene, but clearly he had found one of her triggers and he would be dammed if he wasn't going to use it. She annoyed him enough, it was time for some revenge.

Daryl opened a jar of the pig's feet and ate one in one bite. Marlene gagged and turned away from him, muttering something along the lines of, "such and ass". She hobbled towards the doorway that led to the rest of the hallway that led to an upstairs.

"Where're ya goin'?" he called, still chewing. Her stomach churned unpleasantly.

"Upstairs," she replied. She would drag herself up there by her fingernails if she had to. She was getting away from Daryl and his nasty pig feet!

It took her a good amount of time to climb the steps, mostly because she had to hop the whole way up. By the time Daryl got there, she wasn't even halfway up. He had finished his food and let out a sigh. Of course, she didn't hear him over the clack of her boot against the hardwood floor as she hopped up the steps.

She yelped in surprise when her weight was pulled off the ground and she was held up by only Daryl. "What the hell?" she questioned.

"Takin' too long. Don' wanna take all day to get up the steps."

"Impatient pain in my ass."

Daryl just rolled his eyes and put her down once they reached the top of the steps.

XxX

"What do you think it's going to be like when we get there?" McKenna asked Michonne as they waited for the their three counterparts to finish scavenging inside. Even though Michonne had been against it, Rick insisted that he was fine to go in.

"Good, I hope," Michonne replied. That was all that she could hope for. "What about you?"

"I don't know that we'll find anything."

"Why do you say that?"

"Look at the signs...we have no way of knowing how long ago they got put up...or by who. What if this was just an idea that someone came up with...something that they had planned to do and then they just got killed?"

It was a fair point. "Could be, I guess. Maybe we should still hope for the best though."

"What good will that do? Hoping doesn't do anything...Either it will work out, or it won't."

"McKenna," Carl walked out of the once store grinning.

"What?" she asked, smiling at him a little.

"Guess what I found."

"What'd you find?"

"Batman," he held up a comic book and a grin grew on her face that stretched from ear to ear.

"You're amazing!" she hugged him without thought and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He blushed as she pulled away from him. "Did you find anything else?"

"Basics, the boring stuff."

"Oh well, at least we've got Batman."

XxX

"Oh my God," Marlene dropped her head back in annoyance as she and Daryl were arguing over the plan going forward.

"I'm done," Daryl declared. He had never met anyone more stubborn than him, until now. Marlene was getting on his last nerve. "Ya can hobble yer ass all over the place."

"Fine, I will." They both stood up, intending to storm off, but paused, noticing the other was planning the same.

Marlene acted first and hopped off towards the hallway. He went to use a table for balance, but her hand slipped and she feel.

"Ow, dammit," she cursed. "Fuck," she tried to pull herself up, but Daryl was standing there, just looking at her. "Asshole," she murmured.

"Need help?"

"No."

"Fine," he was trying not to laugh. They wouldn't argue so much if she didn't always have to have the last word. He had noticed that she was more or less a control freak. She preferred to have everything the way that she wanted it all the time.

Daryl started to go back into the kitchen. "Wait," she groaned, trying to get up and failing again. He pulled her so that she was standing on one foot and helped her back into the kitchen.

"Lemme look at that ankle," he decided. She sighed and propped her foot up on the other chair. He slipped her boot off, rolled up her jeans, and then took her sock off. His fingers gently prodded her skin around her ankle. He tried to do so as lightly as he could so that he didn't hurt her but she flinched every time he touched her. "Think ya broke somethin'."

"Great. Just what we need. Look, we fight and all, but don't die because of my clumsiness. If walkers do attack here, I want you to run and leave me behind. No ifs, ands, or buts. Got it?"

He didn't reply. If he left her, he was alone. Despite what he may have thought in the beginning, he didn't want that. He didn't want to be all by himself to face this. He would probably lose his sanity sooner or later.

"Promise me, Daryl."

"Why?" he gave her a stern look. "If I can keep ya from dyin' 'm gonna. Jus' stop tryin' to pick a fight. Go to bed 'er somethin'. I'll take watch."

He was done arguing. That seemed to be what she liked to do most anymore but he was just so tired of trying to prove his point or the other way around.

**AN: Hi guys. I know this didn't have a lot of Carl/McKenna in it...but I have to wait until there's an episode on them. I didn't get to see the preview for next weeks, honestly, I didn't even get to see most of the episode :( something came up. But, hopefully, I'll get to watch this weekend :D**


	12. Chapter 12

"Here," Marlene opened her eyes to see Daryl standing there with a plastic bag. "Ain't much, figured ya migh' need somethin' for the pain..." He knew that by now, that ankle must be causing her a lot of pain.

"Where did you get this stuff?" she pulled herself into a sitting position as she looked through the contents of the bag. There was a bottle of Tylenol, ace bandage, and other basic stuff.

"Cleaned out a shop down the street," he shrugged.

"What did I tell you about risking your life for me, Daryl? I don't want you dead over me. I'm fine."

"Stop. Jus' take it an' be happy," he told her. "Wasn't a big deal."

"Daryl..." He gave a her glare that made her realize that she should just get over it because she wasn't going to get around him helping her anytime soon. "Thank you." He nodded and went to leave the room. "Wait..." He looked over his shoulder at her and she bit her lip. "I don't really want to sit up here alone...Wanna help me down stairs?"

He didn't hesitate to walk across the room and pick her up. He carried her bridal style down the steps and into the living room and set her on the couch. He pulled the table over and she propped her leg up on it.

"Keep it elevated."

"Thank you," she felt that it was necessary to thank him again. He just nodded.

"I need ta wrap it," he knelt down by the table and pulled her sock off and rolled up her pant leg like before. He took the ace bandage from the pile beside her and lifted her foot up. She started at her heel and her found her hand gripping his shoulder tightly as he continued to wrap.

She didn't think that it would hurt as bad as it did, but it was some of the worst pain that she had ever felt in her life.

"Sorry," he murmured, finishing the wrap.

"It's not your fault that I'm so damn clumsy."

XxX

Later, Daryl and Marlene were still in the house together. She hadn't moved much from the couch, but he had actually decided to keep her company for a while.

"I know that you like your alone time sometimes," she said. "But, I...it bothers me to be alone. When I was younger...that was how I spent most of my time. My parents were never home and I when they were they fought...The sad thing is that it didn't bother me too much then. It was the silence that killed me. At least if they were fighting, they were home."

Daryl had never heard Marlene be so serious about something. She was always joking. He was beginning to realize that this was simply her coping mechanism. He felt like he should tell her something in return, even though it would be tough. He couldn't bring himself to do it though.

"This wasn't a lead in for you to tell me about your childhood. You don't have to, I was just...I thought somebody should know why I'm the way I am."

Daryl knew that he didn't have to, but he understood her reasoning and he began telling her about losing his mom when he was young, he touched on his drunken, abusive father, and then some of his life with Merle later on.

"Y'know what, we didn't need them anyway," Marlene said. "We turned out fine despite our screwed up families."

"No you turned out fine," he corrected her.

"Don't do that. You're not bad, not like you think you are. Without you, I'd be gone."

They were kind of stuck, Daryl would never agree with her and she would never agree with him.

XxX

"I can't believe you're eating those nasty things," Marlene wrinkled her nose in disgust as Daryl ate a pig's foot. She wanted to go back to joking around with him, she wanted to have the light conversations that they had before, calling each other names and laughing.

"Betcha never tried 'em."

"And I don't wanna."

He held one out to her teasingly and she backed away as far as she could.

"C'mon, stop wussin' out. Try it."

"No. keep that Goddamn thing away from me. Feet are gross to begin with. They're smelly and imagine where a pig's feet have been! They roll in shit all day, which means they walk in it too."

"They wash 'em."

She made a face and picked up her jar of jam. "Whatever, dirty redneck."

"Stubborn bitch," he replied.

"Asshole."

"Gimpy."

"You're so mean, y'know that."

"I ain't mean."

"Sure you are," she smiled at him and he actually returned it a little. This was the closest that they had ever been like this. For a moment, Marlene thought that they might actually kiss, she didn't know why, but she wasn't opposed to it. Today, she had grown a lot closer to Daryl and she understood him better as a person.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. The cans set up outside began to make noise and he went to go check what was going on, so she waited, the only thing that she could do.

"Run!" she heard him screaming. "Go out to the road, don' stop."

"Daryl," she hopped that way.

"Go now, dammit."

XxX

"I'm going to win," Carl told her as he balanced across the train tracks.

"Says you," McKenna replied. They had been playing this game off and on for a while, but now it was getting serious.

"Let's make this interesting then," Carl suggested.

"How?" McKenna asked.

"If I win, you give me a kiss," he decided to start out simple.

"And if I win, you can give me a piggy back ride for the next half mile." He glared at her for a moment while she just grinned. "Oh but before you were so confident. Is Carl scared now?" she pouted her lips and pretended to whine.

"I'll agree if we add two things to the deal," he said. "If I win, we tell my dad that you're my girlfriend tonight."

"Well I think he'll figure it out if you kiss me in front of him," until now, everything had been in secret, so to speak. They weren't sure what Rick would say and they worried that it would be bad. "What's the other thing."

Carl's cheeks heated up a little as he gave her a shy, but cute smile. "You sing for me again."

"That should be what you get if you lose! Why one Earth do you want that? I sound like a dying cat."

"I don't think so..."

"You're crazy."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Fine," she agreed.

"Good. Deal."

They were so focused on their balancing that they nearly missed Michonne standing in the middle of the train tracks watching them with Rick right behind her.

"Do you think we could pick this up later?" he asked. "We're losin' the light."

"We've got a bet going," Carl replied.

"Yeah, we can't quit," McKenna agreed.

"What's this 'bet'?" Michonne asked, smiling a little.

Carl and McKenna shared a look for a moment. They both went back to looking at the tracks, but Carl spoke for them. "We can't tell you," it was the easiest answer to the question.

"Why not?" Michonne walked backwards just to watch their facial expressions.

"If he wins, we'll tell you," McKenna decided.

"Yeah," he agreed. He reached over and tried to push her off but nearly fell himself.

"Haha that's what cheaters get!"

"I wasn't cheating."

"Whatever," she looked over and stuck her tongue out at him, but much to her dismay, in the process, she lost her balance and fell back onto the tracks.

"I win," Carl grinned triumphantly.

"So what does he win?" Michonne asked.

"My girlfriend has to kiss me and she has to sing for me."

"Girlfriend?" Michonne asked.

The two looked at her and blushed deeply.

**AN: Again, not a lot of Carl/McKenna. I can't write much off of what they give me. I'm hoping to have another chapter up this week and then I may end this one story with the season and start back up when season 5 starts. I don't know. But, I did meet Chandler Riggs on Saturday :) I got his autograph and it was really cool! Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: I'll be honest, I literally took like a page and a half of notes on the season finale to try to make this chapter the best one yet. I may split it into two and I don't know what I'm going to do after the finale...I may wait until five starts...I don't know though. **

"Oh man," McKenna rubbed her grumbling stomach as they sat around the fire. "I'm so tired of being hungry all the time."

"You and me both," Carl smiled at her. "You still haven't sang for me," he reminded her.

"Count yourself blessed."

"I still wanna hear you sing, I don't care how bad you think you sound."

"You're so mean to me, all the time," she whined.

"No I'm not," he wrapped his arm around her and she rested her head against his shoulder. "Do you think it's been enough time that we could check the snare?" Carl asked Rick.

Rick had come to accept that his son had a girlfriend. He couldn't really expect much else though. They were close to the same age and they got along really well. It made a lot of sense for him to want to have that relationship connection with someone...that he would want to know what having a girlfriend was like, so Rick respected them and wasn't about to stop them from the small piece of happiness that they had.

"Yeah, I'd say it has probably been enough time."

The five of them began making their way to the snare that they had set up. Bentley walked beside Carl and McKenna but stayed silent, they switched to simply holding hands as they walked because it was easier than him keeping his arm around her.

"We've got one," Rick stated, picking up the little rabbit. In her previous life, the one where she was free to watch television and go to school, McKenna would have felt terrible for that poor bunny. But now, she only saw it as her next meal and she was thankful that it was dead because now she could eat. No matter what anyone did, the conditions of the world would change who they were. Animals adapt to their surroundings and humans, essentially were no different. Everyone had to either adapt to this world with walkers or die. "See this knot, it's called a slip knot," Rick explained how it worked a little bit was the rabbit was in his bag. McKenna couldn't focus on this words, she was lost in thought, thinking about how good it would feel to actually eat something.

Before she knew it, they were back on the move for most of the day. They didn't stop until the sun was beginning to set and they found an abandoned SUV sitting on the side of the road. There was a flattened walker that Michonne ended up stabbing in the head with her sword.

"We'll stay here for the night," Rick decided. He cooked the rabbit, they ate, and then Carl and McKenna went into the SUV to sleep. She got in the driver seat and him in the passenger seat. They leaned the seats back and tried their best to go to sleep, but neither of them could.

"This place we're going to..." she began. "What if...what if it's bad?"

"It can't be much worse than what we've been through already," he reasoned.

"What if...what if it is?" This was one of the few times that Carl had ever seen McKenna upset. She looked like she was about to cry. "I can't go through anything like what happened at the prison again..."

"You won't," he promised her. He sat up and looked at her carefully. She looked up at him with her green eyes shining with tears, signaling she was about to cry. "Come here," he offered her with open arms and she didn't resist, she hugged him tightly and allowed herself to feel some relief.

A sound, like someone's foot breaking a branch caught Carl's attention and he pulled out of his hug with McKenna. "Get on the floor back there," he told her with urgency in her voice. She didn't hesitate to do as he requested.

Before he could move, there was a man with a knife at his window. He hoped that maybe, whatever was going on, wouldn't affect McKenna, that she would be safe in the backseat-even if it sounded unrealistic.

McKenna stayed as silent as she could, hoping that the darkness could conceal her, but fear for Carl outweighed her own fear. She felt like she was in a much safer position than he was.

"No, hold up a minute," a voice outside of the car sounded vaguely familiar and McKenna knew that she recognized it from somewhere. She could hear muffled sounds, but not much else. Then it hit her. Daryl. That was who was outside of the car.

After that, things went a little...crazy. The creepy guy from outside of the car ripped Carl out of it and pushed him to the ground. McKenna had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. She knew that it would be useless to jump out now, she was unseen for the moment and she would be a lot smarter to wait until the people outside of the car were distracted and she was the only one that could do anything.

After it sounded like everyone was distracted, McKenna quietly climbed out of the car and moved behind the guy that was nearly literally on top of Carl. He was messing with his own belt and she was horrified.

"Get away from him," she forced out, holding her gun at him. She could hear people beating each other up from all directions, but she knew that this was where she needed to start helping. "I will shoot you! Move!" she commanded. The man froze when he noticed Rick bite out one of his counterparts' throats. Blood was all over Rick's face and it was a little nauseating.

Despite that, the creepy one still hadn't moved. She didn't care about the noise, she pulled the trigger and shot him in the shoulder where it would cause him a lot of pain. "I told you to move!" she exclaimed. Instead of caring what happened to him next-she saw Rick making his way over with a knife-she went to Carl's side and helped him off of the pavement. "Are you alright?" she questioned, looking over him carefully. His hand was bleeding somewhat so she took it, ripping a piece of her shirt off to tie against it. She kissed where her T-shirt part covered his palm and he just pulled her into yet another hug, it seemed to be a common theme between the two of them for that day.

**AN: I hope this chapter was good. I wanted to end it here because I'm really tired and I wanted to get this part finished while it was fresh in my mind. Please review. **


	14. Chapter 14

McKenna sat on the floor of the car near Carl's feet, his head rested on Michonne's lap as he slept. She rested her chin on her knees and rested a hand on his ankle, his shoes were still on and she didn't think that he was that comfortable, but he was sleeping so that was a good sign. Daryl and Rick were talking outside, but she blocked them out, wanting to sleep too, but she was afraid too. She had seen too much in the past few hours for her not to have nightmares. Bentley was snoring and sleeping soundly in the backseat. He didn't seem too affected by any of this.

"You can sleep too," Michonne offered her.

"No. I'll...I'm fine," she murmured.

"You really care for him, don't you?" McKenna nodded, reaching up to push a little bit of his longer hair from his face.

"He's pretty much all I have..." Her parents were dead and Marlene was gone. She hadn't seen her leave the prison or anything, maybe she would have to ask Daryl about Marlene, maybe he had seen something.

"I'm here if you need anything," Michonne offered.

"Thanks..." Carl's blue eyes opened and he looked at McKenna carefully as she pushed more hair from his face. "Are you okay?" he nodded and reached his hand out to her, she took it and moved closer to his head and sat with her legs crossed under her. His thumb caressed the back of her hand with his thumb.

WWWVWWW

As they walked on the train tracks later, Daryl walked with Carl and McKenna.

"Did you see Marlene get out of the prison?" McKenna asked Daryl.

He didn't answer at first, he hesitated for a minute. "She made it out with me," he admitted.

"So she's...she's dead then?"

Daryl stopped and looked at the teenager and frowned. "Maybe not...She's...I don' kno'."

"How does that make any sense?" she demanded.

He carefully explained that she had been kidnapped.

"We have to find her...we can't go to Terminus yet...we have to find her, Daryl."

He seemed to weigh his options for a moment, he did want to find Marlene but he didn't even know where to start. It had been two days and he knew that she could be anywhere by now.

"Please," McKenna begged. "Convince them to help us...or come with me. She's like family to me..." the tears in her eyes began to seep over and Daryl felt even worse for not killing the group he was with and looking for her right away.

"I'll help ya," he decided. If Rick and Michonne didn't want to go, then so be it, but Daryl owed McKenna and Marlene this much.

"Thank you," she stopped walking and hugged him tightly. For the first time in a while, she had hope, hope that she could not only have her boyfriend but the woman that she looked at like an aunt. He patted her head, unsure of why she was showing him such gratitude, if it weren't for him, she wouldn't have been kidnapped. "Rick, Michonne, Bentley...can you stop a minute?"

"I'm going with you," Carl looked her dead in the eyes, he wasn't letting her do this on his own.

"What is it?" Rick asked, the were nearly to Terminus now and it wouldn't be long before they reached the safety of its walls.

"We're goin' back," Daryl told him. "Gotta fin' Marlene..."

"We as in who?" Michonne asked in an even tone.

"Me and Daryl, come if you want," she looked at them. "If you're allowed," she looked over at Carl carefully. She didn't want to leave him but if Rick wouldn't let him go then she wasn't just going to no go, she needed to find Marlene.

"Terminus is close now, just go there first, then we can all look," Rick suggested.

"That wouldn't be right, it would be wasting more time...like this is," McKenna reasoned. "What if it was Carl out there, would you want to wait? Marlene is my family."

"I'm going too," Carl announced.

"Carl, it's too dangerous," Rick told him sternly.

"It's too dangerous for the two of them to go alone. I can help. I'm going."  
"Carl-" McKenna wanted to defuse the argument but it didn't seem to be happening.

"I can't let you go."

"Then don't. Even if we get into Terminus, I'm leaving and catching up with them."

Michonne could see the look in Carl's eyes, he meant it, he would go no matter what Rick said. His feelings for McKenna had to run deep. Carl took McKenna's hand and she looked at him with her dark green eyes, he gave her a soft smile before looking back to his dad.

"Then I'm going too," Rick finally decided. If Carl was going to go, then he needed his father to look out for him.

"I'm going," Michonne added.

"That throws me in there then, huh?" Bentley offered a smile but an idea popped into McKenna's head.

"You should go into Terminus, get everything ready for us, it'll be helpful to know someone that's there..."

"That's smart, actually," Rick agreed. "Just walk through the main gates and we'll be back soon."

Bentley didn't like this idea too much but he nodded and waved a goodbye to the larger group. He surely hoped that he would see them again really soon and that this wasn't going to cause their deaths.

**AN: Short one...but it needed to be that way so that I have more chapters to come. I decided to take this in my own direction for a while. Hopefully, I can make this last quite a while so that y'all don't have to wait as long for season five. Plus, this is what I wish would have happened with Beth so that they would have found her. **


	15. Chapter 15

"How are we going to find her, Daryl?" McKenna sat with her back against the same tree as Daryl. Rick, Michonne, and Carl all were sleeping next to the fire.

"I know what the car looked like and..." he trailed off, unsure. He covered his face with his hands and sighed.

McKenna bit her lip, having never seen Daryl like this, she didn't know what to do. If it was nearly anyone else she would not have hesitated to comfort them, but it was Daryl and she knew that he was different and probably wouldn't like it if she tried to hug him or anything of the sort.

"We will find her, somehow," McKenna decided that was the best that she could give him. "I know you, I know that you won't quit until we do. And really, how far away could she be?"

The task would be nearly impossible, Daryl knew that when he agreed to find her. Hope wasn't good for much of anything, but it needed to be there for them to have a chance of finding Marlene and he was glad that McKenna had it. It could be the difference between finding her and not. "We will," he looked over at her and she gave him a small smile before nodding.

The two sat on watch for a while, Carl and Michonne would be on next watch because Rick had been awake the whole night before. They knew that he needed his sleep more than the rest of them for now. At what they estimated to be halfway though the night, McKenna and Daryl woke the other two up for their watch shifts before going to sleep.

Michonne and Carl made small talk, but she knew that something was on his mind, she knew that something was really eating away at him by the way he stared off into the distance. He wasn't usually like that. So, in the hope that he would open up as well, Michonne began talking. She told Carl about the day when she came back to camp and found her boyfriend and his friend high and bit and her son dead. She told him about how she shut down and did terrible, awful things in the time between then and when she met Andrea in the woods. She counted herself as lucky no because she came back from it.

"I'm not afraid of my dad," Carl told her, knowing what she was getting at. "It's me...I...I have these thoughts. I think about all of the things that I could do. I'm afraid of the monster that I am." Carl let out a breath, feeling a lot better to admit that finally. "I'm worried about what she's going to think of me when she finds out how bad I really am..." Carl added, looking at McKenna.

"You're not a monster, Carl."

"Last year, I shot that guy and I didn't need to do that, he..." Over by the fire, McKenna sat straight up quickly. Carl didn't hesitate to move to her. She had tears in her eyes and looked miserable. "What happened."

"I..." she trailed off for a moment. "Nightmare," she elaborated. She hugged him tightly and rested her head on his shoulder as she sobbed. "You were...you were dead, Carl..." This was one of the reasons that she didn't want to grow too attached to someone, but she couldn't help it now.

He wanted to be able to promise her that it wouldn't happen, that she would never have to experience that, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to do so. Instead, he did what he could and held her while she cried.

XxX

Everything hurt. Her wrists and ankles burned from the rope tied around them. She couldn't feel the skin on her lips anymore. They felt completely raw and like the duct tape was the only thing keeping everything formed.

"When is it her turn?" a voice from outside the door asked. Marlene winced, she had quickly figured out what was happening here and it worried her more than anything.

"It'll be three days before it's time for the next offering," the other voice said.

Marlene had quickly discovered that this people were absolutely bat shit crazy. They thought that somehow, but offering live people to the walkers, it would keep them alive. It was similar to the way that people would offer up human sacrifices to the Gods in ancient Myan societies. Except with the people now, they found living people and took them to a field of walkers that they kept outside in a fenced in area.

She knew that she didn't want to be one of the people that got sacrificed, she had to find a way to get out. She heard them, three days. She had to use the time that she had now to plot as much as possible. She had to come up with a fool proof plan to get out. First thing had to be getting free of her bounds. She had picked up on the fact that they came in every day in the middle of the day and that was it. Since she had been there, they had sacrificed two people, one the day she arrived and one today. It seemed this about every three days and if she was right, they would be bringing someone else in really soon.

Marlene waited patiently for them to come in at midday. She didn't have much else to do anyway. Her ankle still hurt from where she rolled it when she was with Daryl. Daryl. He had been something that had been a part of her thoughts a lot recently. The last few days that she had been with him, hadn't been bad. She had seen a deeper side to him. He wasn't a bad guy at all. He had a dark past that he overcame to become the good man that he was. He could have easily been a bad guy, but he definitely wasn't.

As expected, they brought someone new into the room. He was a about her age and seemed to be muscular. She realized that capturing people wasn't difficult for them. They had chloroform and would knock out their victims, at least that was what had happened to her when they threw her in the trunk. One of the men that brought that guy in, looked at her with a smirk before leaving. She swallowed hard, fearing her impending doom.

It took about two hours for the man to wake up, but when he did, he panicked. One of the other captors had to run in there to calm him down, and their form of calming people down was punching them, slapping them, or otherwise abusing them. The man stopped in front of her, ripped off her duct tape, set a bottle of water on her lap, and untied one wrist. He stood at the door and watched her for a moment. "I-" she tried to speak, but her voice cracked. She hadn't spoken in so long. "I won't try to escape...What you're doing here is...it's needed," she gave him the best genuine look that she could muster. She wouldn't run tonight, not just yet. She would run tomorrow night when he did the same thing to better gain trust.

He narrowed he eyes at her before exiting the room. She began formulating a plan in her mind of how she would get out the next evening. She tried to drink the water, but her lips burned so bad. She had to ignore it on the account of the fact that her tongue was like sandpaper. She would escape, she had to, she couldn't die like that, she had been through too much for that.

**AN: Sorry for the delay. I've started working, I've been doing training and all that. My first day is Saturday. I hope to get another chapter up on Friday. So I hope you all like where I'm taking this. Please review. **


	16. Chapter 16

"What the hell is that?" McKenna couldn't refrain from using slight profanity. The sight before her was one that would easily input shock and horror into anyone. In the field below the slope they were on, there was a shack of a house with a large fenced in area and a wooden barn. None of that was what was horrifying, it was what was within the fences. Walkers. Not just one or two, but dozens everywhere. They weren't gathering near the edges, but moving about in the area. It was weird, to say the least.

"I'm not sure," Rick admitted, looking at the place curiously.

"I don't want to stick around to find out," Michonne replied.

The rest of the group agreed, at least until they heard a scream from the field below.

"Somebody down there is in pain," McKenna pointed out. "We have to do something..." She couldn't just leave the house knowing that someone was possibly getting tortured. To her, that was what the scream had sounded like, like they were getting beaten or trying to escape from somewhere. It was a scream of desperation and she was too human to let it go.

"I thought you wanted to find Marlene," Rick looked at her seriously.

Daryl, who hadn't said a word yet, was even shocked by the scene before them. The shock only continued when he recognized the old car sitting outside of the shack. "They're the ones that took Marlene," he said confidently. He knew for a fact, the back of that car was burned into the back of his mind permanently. He couldn't forget it if he tried.

"We have to go," McKenna said, starting to move towards the slope to go down. Daryl placed his hand on her shoulder, stilling her movement.

"We ain't goin' in there without a plan," he told her. "We'll make a plan."

XxX

"You need to shut up," Marlene had successfully gotten them to leave her gag off and had formulated her plan. She was going to escape as soon as they left the room for the night. All that was left was to shut the guy next to her up so that she could keep herself untied.

Outside, she heard what she would have guessed were gunshots. They were loud and they sounded really close.

"What in the hell?" one of the men shouted with a thick accent. The door outside opened and Marlene couldn't hear anything that was going on.

The wooden door that she was inside of swung open and a man that she didn't really recognize, came in and grabbed her by her wrists. They were already raw and the pain was excruciating enough to make her scream out in pain. She tried kicking but her legs, due to under use, barely functioned.

"Stop squirmin' girl. You're going to be what saves us. He will help us once we sacrifice you."

"You're crazy. All of you, crazy!" she shouted, screaming for help at the same time.

XxX

"We should be down there, helping," McKenna told Carl. "They're going to need us..."

"They'll get it," he tried to reassure her. "We have to be backup, just to be safe."

"But―" Carl covered her mouth with his and then pulled away a little. He rested his forehead against hers and looked deep into her eyes.

"McKenna, I don't want to worry about losing you in there, I know you want to find her...but I don't want you risking yourself to do so...I can't lose you..." He figured that if he lost her, he would lose himself too, he had been close to losing himself before, but it would happen if it were McKenna he lost. The monster inside would take over and he couldn't allow that to happen. He couldn't be what he tried to protect her from.

"Carl..." she whispered. She was about to say something else when a scream caught her attention. She jumped up, her gun ready. This time, the scream was female but it was just as desperate as the first. McKenna got to her feet, looked down the valley and saw a man dragging a dark haired form to the pin of walkers.

"We can go now, but please...be careful," he pleaded. She nodded and together, they made their way quickly down the hill. They ran once they were in the open space and stopped when the man had his back turned.

"Hey!" McKenna shouted. He turned to face her and she could see the face of his victim, her skin was pale and she looked week, but she was alive. She was still alive and doing everything that she could do.

In that moment, everything was frozen. She felt like she was a lot closer to him than she was. She felt like she could taken in ever detail of his face. And the final impression would be left, imprinted on her skull permanently as she pulled the trigger. The man fell in slow motion, his back didn't hit the ground for what seemed like hours. Once he did, McKenna felt like part of her had died, not because she should feel guilty, but because she had taken a life to begin with. She needed to keep telling herself that the terrible, awful man, deserved it because nobody knew all of the horrors that Marlene had been through by his hand.

"Marlene," McKenna swallowed her fear and pain as she knelt down to the older woman. Her eyes were barely open and she looked like she was going to faint. By this point, all of the other gunshots had stopped completely.

"Hey kid," she greeted.

"Are you...are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" she gave a half smirk, knowing that it was all over now. Never could she be fed to the walkers as a sacrifice because all of her captors were day.

Only one question was left. Would Marlene survive? She had lost a substantial amount of blood over the past few days and she had barely eaten. She was also suffering from incredible dehydration. Would she survive?

**AN: I'm sure I could have added more details. I just wanted to get it out because today's the only day I have a life for the next week. I've got work all weekend and then school all week. I won't get to write so I had to get it up. Please review :)s**


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